


Long Way From Home

by Lucy_Luna



Series: Family Branches [9]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angst with a Happy Ending, Dimension Travel, F/M, Family, Family Bonding, Family Feels, Gen, Implied Childhood Sexual Abuse, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Kid Fic, POV Alternating, Pre-Hogwarts, Romance, Sequel, Slow Romance
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-05-28
Updated: 2021-02-24
Packaged: 2021-03-03 02:34:27
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 20
Words: 103,220
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24417451
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lucy_Luna/pseuds/Lucy_Luna
Summary: A game of hide-and-seek goes awry for Lottie Snape and the consequences are an unwanted adventure in a Hogwarts that looks like her home but is decidedly not. At the same time, Severus Snape gets a crash-course in parenting.
Relationships: Original Character(s) & Original Character(s), Poppy Pomfrey & Severus Snape, Severus Snape & Original Character(s), Severus Snape/Original Female Character(s)
Series: Family Branches [9]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/952881
Comments: 18
Kudos: 51





	1. A Game Gone Awry

Three girls were arranged in a small circle on the lounge room's oriental rug. Two, shy of identical, had their dark brown hair pulled back in long plaits running down their backs. The last, a little smaller than the other girls, had her raven-black hair hanging in two bunches in front of her chest.

In the middle of the girls’ circle was an array of floating, spinning, and moving stones. The stones protected a collection of levitating colored gems. One by one, they’d take a turn to grab a single gemstone of a particular color from behind the protective wall of stones. When one girl, the raven-haired one, bumped a spinning rock, it crackled with a spark and she yelped, yanking her hand back.

“Oh, it got you, Essie,” teased one of the other girls.

Essie scowled at her. “The rocks are spinning faster now that the game’s half-way through, Lottie,” she grumbled.

“Yet,” said the last girl as she nimbly pulled a blue-green gem from behind a pair of oscillating rocks, “we manage.”

The black-haired girl threw up her hands. “You play this a lot more than me!”

“Now, now,” chided a teenager from behind the trio on the sofa just steps away. “The game’s hardly over Essie. Don’t become a sore loser on Eileen and Lottie _yet_.”

“Wha’ kind o’ advice is that?” asked a woman as she walked into the room, the hand of a little blonde toddler clutched in her own.

The teenager shrugged. “She’s going to cry either way,” she answered. “At least I can put it off a bit.”

The woman gave an exasperated shake of her head. “Darla, yeh could help her instead,” she said.

Darla grinned at the woman. “Ah, but how’d she get better then Edie?” she asked.

Edie huffed before reaching down and picking up the little girl. “Keep an eye on things, won’t yeh? I’m goin’ ter Hogsmeade with Calliope ter buy new stockings fer the girls.” She sent a pointed look at the trio who were studiously ignoring her. “Our little imps decided ter turn theirs inter puppets.”

Darla pouted. “Can’t you take them with you?” she whined. “I’m _ill_ and should be _resting_!”

Edie rolled her eyes as she stepped up next to the room’s hearth. “Yeh can stay right where yeh are.” She looked back at the girls who were now peeking at her out of the corners of their eyes. “An’ the girls will entertain themselves right here in the lounge room til we’re back or Sev finishes his classes, won’t yeh?”

“Yes, Edie,” the trio chorused.

Nodding her head in satisfaction. She reached up and took a handful of floo powder from the jar kept on the shelf attached to the hearth. Before she threw it into the hearth, she glanced back at all of them with narrowed eyes. “Behave,” she warned. With that, she let her handful fall into the embers flicker at the bottom of the hearth and stepped inside, calling out her intended location.

Once Edie was gone, the girls returned to their game, and Darla watched. Until she fell asleep, anyway. When Lottie caught sight of her aunt’s closed eyes, she listened to make sure her breathing was even. Grinning when she realized it was, she waved her hand over the top of the rocks and gems, causing them all to fall in a heap on the rug.

“Hey!” complained Essie. “I was going to win.”

Eileen glared at her little sister. “No, you weren’t,” she said in a growl that was a perfect mimicry of their father’s scolding tone.

Essie narrowed her eyes right back at Eileen. Lottie rolled her eyes at both before shoving them away from each other. “Come on,” she said. “Darla’s asleep. We can go play hide-and-seek in the passageways nearby.”

Eileen, who was rubbing the shoulder Lottie shoved, frowned at her sister. “Edie said to stay here.”

She rolled her eyes at her twin. “That’s not a good reason to stay!” She turned a pleading look on her youngest sister. “Right, Essie?”

The girl glanced between them before saying, “No…”

“You’re just saying that because you think you can win at hide-and-seek.”

Essie puffed out her cheeks. “No!” she denied.

Before they could get in a row and wake Darla, Lottie pulled herself to her feet and began to tug on Essie’s arm. “Come on!” she persisted. “Let’s go play. We only have a while before Edie will be back.”

“Only one round!” declared Eileen as she followed after Lottie and Essie as they headed for the family quarter’s exit into the halls of Hogwarts.

She laughed and grinned back at her twin. “Or two!”

A loud, dramatic sigh was her only reply.

-o-O-o-

Scampering into the classroom, Lottie swiveled her head around looking for a place to hide. If she strained her ears, she could just hear Essie yelling the number twenty. She had thirty more seconds to conceal herself from her sister. Spotting a cupboard in the far corner of the dusty classroom, Lottie made a beeline for it. 

Swinging open a door, she winced when it creaked. Whoops. Hopefully, Essie didn’t hear it all the way down the passageway (or Eileen for that matter.) Considering the inside, she dove down low to squeeze herself in on the bottom beneath the first shelf. 

It was a little uncomfortable, but she fit and that was all that mattered. Reaching out, she closed the cabinet door and laid down in the darkness to wait. As she did so, she realized her shoulder was touching something hard and round. 

Frowning to herself, she squirmed until she was laid on her side. In the dusty grayness of the cabinet, she could see that what she had been touching was what appeared to be a snowglobe. With the heel of her foot, Lottie pushed the cabinet door open just a sliver to let more light in. From the new light, her study of the globe became more detailed. She awed over there being a miniature Hogwarts inside of it. Above the Hogwarts hung gray clouds not dissimilar to the ones she’d spied in the sky outside from another classroom’s window. 

Smiling, she gave it a slight shake. However, no snow fell from the clouds. Instead, they cleared away and the globe seemed to brighten. Then, little people on brooms started to fly around near the mini Hogwarts’s quidditch pitch. She snickered to herself. Lottie hadn’t expected that to happen, but she enjoyed it all the same. Putting down the globe, she laid her cheek on her arm and just watched the tiny witches and wizards flying on their brooms. 

However, once her legs began to go numb, Lottie started to squirm in her hiding place. After a couple of more minutes, she began to huff and grumble to herself. Finally, after what had to be upward ten minutes, Lottie got out of the cabinet. Stomping her feet, she said to herself, “I’m gonna find you, Essie! I didn’t hide anywhere _that_ clever.”

A little peeved, Lottie stalked out of the classroom and into the corridor. “Essie!” she yelled down it. “Where are you? You’re not Calliope, you should have been able to find me _ages_ ago!”

Instead of one of her sisters answering her, a pair of Hufflepuffs who were a short distance down the hallway startled at her voice. The one on the left’s hair went from a mousy brown to pink. Lottie laughed, she knew that one's name! It was Nymphadora Tonks. Grinning, she ran over to the pair as they turned around. “Hi!” she said to them both. Tonks and the other girl, who she thought might be one of the two Jones girls, exchanged glances.

“Hello,” Tonks returned. “Erm, what are you doing here?” she asked.

Looking around the pair and then behind herself, she answered, “I was playing with Eileen and Essie. Don’t tell, okay?”

“Okay,” agreed Tonks sounding strangely miffed at her admission.

Lottie ignored it. “You haven’t seen them, have you?” she asked. “We agreed to stay in this corridor…”

“Uh, no,” answered the maybe Jones girl. 

Lottie huffed at this and crossed her arms. “They’re trying to get me in trouble, I bet!” she grumbled.

“Maybe,” agreed Tonks. “Or perhaps they think you left the corridor,” she said. “Why don’t we go find Professor Sprout together? Perhaps she’s seen them.”

Lottie considered this idea. It _was_ possible, she supposed. Though why her sisters would have thought she would leave the corridor she didn’t know. Those sorts of tricks were Darla’s idea of fun, not hers. “I don’t know,” she said. “Professor Sprout will probably just tell on me to Sev.”

Jones and Tonks looked at each other again. Then, smiling, Jones crouched down and said, “No, she won’t! You’re awfully cute. I bet you can charm her into keeping this one little secret.”

She frowned, finding Jones’s remark lordly. “She’s almost as strict as Professor McGonagall,” replied Lottie.

“With students, but you’re not one!” broke in Tonks, grinning at her. “Come on,” she persisted. “I’ll show you my duckbill mouth trick.”

Lottie took the offered hand of Jones. She wasn’t convinced this would end well for her, but that did sound like a pretty brilliant trick. Together, the three walked down the corridors in the direction of Professor Sprout’s office. As they did, Tonks morphed her mouth into a duckbill and back again a couple of times at Lottie’s begging. As she hoped, it had been a wicked trick and made her even more envious of the teenager than she had been previously. Oh why did being a metamorphmagus have to be so rare?

Far too soon they reached Sprout’s office and the Hufflepuffs led Lottie inside. The woman, who was behind her desk reading a magazine, put it aside at the sight of them. Her eyes flickered to Lottie and grew slightly wide.

“Why, who is this?” she asked Tonks and Jones.

The girls shrugged at their head of house. “We aren’t sure,” Jones said, which caused Lottie to frown. _Everyone_ knew who she was, even if she didn’t know them. “She was in a corridor on the ground floor and said she’d been playing with her sisters there,” explained the teenager.

“Hmm,” murmured Professor Sprout. “Thank you for bringing her here, Ms. Jones and Ms. Tonks,” she said. “You may go.”

The girls thanked the professor and with one last backward glance each they were gone, leaving Lottie alone with Professor Sprout. Lottie returned her stare to the witch and she stared back. After a long moment of strange silence between them, the professor asked, “What is your name?”

Lottie blinked. She must have misheard Professor Sprout. “What?” she said.

The witch’s brows furrowed. “Your name,” she said, sharper. “What is your name?”

This time, Lottie gaped. “You aren’t being serious!” she exclaimed. “You know my name! I’ve known you as long as I can remember!”

Professor Sprout leaned back in her chair and shook her head. “Miss, we both know that isn’t the case. I’m unsure who your sisters are and what type of prank they’ve roped you into, but you must give me your name. Your parents must be missing you.”

Lottie couldn’t form coherent words. All she could do was shake her head wildly as she tried to understand what was going on. She thought this was a _prank_? That was just ridiculous! When she felt a little more in control, Lottie narrowed her eyes at the professor. The witch was watching her with stern, but concerned eyes. As she considered Professor Sprout, Lottie began to wonder if _she_ wasn’t being pranked. Possibly to punish her for being out in the corridors during class hours? 

That seemed almost possible. 

Putting on a sweet smile, Lottie said, “Oh, I understand.” The concern on Professor Sprout’s face seemed to deepen at her words, but Lottie ignored it. “I know it was wrong of us to play in the corridors during class hours,” she told the witch. “I’m sorry. We only wanted to play a little bit, but that was wrong. Sev and Edie have their rules about leaving our quarters for a reason.”

Apparently flabbergasted by her words, Professor Sprout sputtered, “What in Merlin’s name are you talking about?”

Lottie’s smile fell and an angry scowl replaced it. Oh, this wasn’t fair! She’d apologized and even admitted she was wrong to play in the corridors with her sisters. This silly “prank” the witch was playing on her should be over now! Balling her hands into fists, she stamped her foot. “What am _I_ talking about?” she growled. “Why are _you_ still playing this trick on me? I said I was sorry!”

“Trick?” echoed the witch, wide-eyed. “Little girl, you are talking like a mad hatter.”

Lottie, entirely fed up, fought down the urge to cry. Instead, she forced back her tears and lifted her nose high into the air. If the professor wasn’t going to give up the ruse on her own, she would _make_ her. “Take me to the headmaster,” she demanded. “He’ll end this stupid game.”

Professor Sprout frowned at her words. “You will tell him who you are?” she asked.

Lottie rolled her eyes. “I won’t need to,” she said.

The witch eyed her. Then, she sighed. “Very well,” she replied wearily. “Let us go see the Headmaster.”

-O-

Stepping out from behind the woman, Lottie grinned with relief when she saw that the headmaster was seated behind his desk. Bounding forward, she exclaimed, “Professor!”

His brows furrowed slightly before his eyes lit with mirth. Smiling back at Lottie, Professor Dumbledore said, “Hello, child.” He then looked to Professor Sprout who’d come to stand behind Lottie. “Pomona, who is this young lady you have here?”

Lottie’s heart felt as if it’s been struck with a stunning curse. For a moment, all she could do was gape at the old man as the witch behind her murmured, “Well…”

Fresh tears sprung to Lottie’s eyes. In a shrill pitch, she yelled at them, “This prank isn’t funny anymore! You all know me! Professor McGonagall even when I was in Edie’s stomach.”

Now standing, the old man started to come around his desk, hands moving in a calming gesture. “Child, why don’t we all take a moment to calm down—”

“No!” roared Lottie over the top of the headmaster’s placating words. She was so _furious_. It was one thing to play a bit of a trick to teach them, but this was just _mean_. Voice cracking from the volume she was screaming at, she demanded, “You’re all being a bunch of berks! I want Sev.” Head swiveling around, she looked for the man but found him nowhere.

He’d never let her get this upset before— At least not after she’d already given into his punishments. Lottie had to believe that meant she wasn’t in on whatever this lesson was. Looking at Professor Dumbledore who now stood just feet from her through watery eyes, she cried, “Where’s my dad?” Sucking in a stuttering breath, she threatened them. “He _never_ plays pranks and won’t put up with them for anything and will give you it for this!”

The headmaster sighed and turned his attention away from her. It seemed he’d given up on asking her questions. “Pomona,” he said, looking past Lottie and to the other professor, “this Sev she mentions…?”

“I think she means Severus, yes.”

“Why don’t you go retrieve him while I continue to try and understand how our young friend has found herself here?” he requested.

“Of course, sir,” agreed the witch. 

As she left, Lottie hissed at the man, “I’m right here.”

“Yes, you are,” he replied looking down at her with a critical eye.

Wiping the tears from her face with the sleeve of her robe, she told him, “I don’t like this.”

“I can’t say I do either, child,” said the headmaster. Lottie tensed as he moved closer to her, but relaxed when he stooped down and offered her a handkerchief. As she took his offering and cleaned up her face, Professor Dumbledore asked in a calm, gentle voice, “Will you tell me your name?”

Lottie gave the man a fresh glare for his troubles. “You _know_ it.”

Something flashed across the old man’s face, but it was too quick for Lottie to catch as a tight smile followed immediately after. “Humor me, won’t you?” he pressed.

She puffed out her cheeks and rolled her eyes. She didn’t understand why they were trying to keep up this game still, but maybe if she played along just a little… “It’s Lottie!” she answered in a loud burst.

“Thank you,” said the old man only to press for more. “And your surname, my child?”

Lottie made a disgusted noise in the back of her throat as she felt her face flame hot. She thought of refusing him, but, instead, she sneered at the headmaster and spat, “I’ll do you even better. My _full_ name is Charlotte Minerva Snape!”

“Minerva Snape?” the headmaster echoed, seemingly shocked by both. His face pulled into an inscrutable expression as he asked, “Your mother, is—”

—Edie is my mum!” yelled Lottie, drowning out the rest of Professor Dumbledore’s stupid and unfunny question. “As you know!” she added in a grumble beneath her breath.

The headmaster began to stroke his beard, troubled. “Hm…” he murmured as he rose back to his full height. “My child, Lottie,” he said then, looking down at her. “Would you perhaps take a seat in the chair by the hearth, please?”

She wanted to refuse, she was so cross with Professor Dumbledore and everybody else, but she nodded. Professor Sprout had gone for her dad and he would make them all sorry for what they were doing to her soon enough. As requested, she walked to the chair and sat in it. 

The headmaster continued to look at her with his strange expression, fingers absently twisting and tugging at his beard. For her part, she glared at him. “How old are you?” he inquired, earning a roll of her eyes from Lottie. At her reaction, he said, “I promise this is my last silly question.”

Lottie narrowed her eyes suspiciously at him. She didn’t quite believe the old man, but on the off-chance he wasn’t lying… “Eight,” she answered.

“Hm…” the headmaster said again, much to her irritation. How was she supposed to take such a sound? It was on the tip of her tongue to demand what “hm” was supposed to mean, but the office doorway opened and Lottie jumped from her seat.

“Sev!” she cried at the sight of her father in his teaching robes. Running to him, she threw her arms around his middle and cried, “They’re all being just terrible! They’re playing some kind of prank I don’t understand and I don’t like it! Make it _stop_.”

Her dad said nothing and the longer she clung to him, the more obvious it became that something was wrong. He was rigid beneath her arms and no hand had come to rest atop her head or on the back of her neck. In fact, out of the corners of her eyes, she could see his arms were held away from her, half bent, hands in the air. Lottie pulled back. “Sev?” she whispered, staring up at her dad. In his eyes, as with everyone she’d come in contact with since she left the dusty, abandoned classroom, there was no recognition. Slowly, he lifted his gaze from Lottie and to the headmaster behind her.

“What is the meaning of this?” demanded her dad.

Lottie’s hands fell from around her father and she felt herself begin to shake. “You… You…”

Behind her dad’s shoulder, Professor Sprout pulled a face of sympathy as Lottie began to sob. “Oh, love,” she clucked coming around to wrap her in her thick warm arms as around them the headmaster and her dad spoke. 

“She says her name is Lottie Snape.”

“I know of no Snapes besides myself.”

“She recognized you.”

“The girl mentioned a prank.”

“Ms. Lottie recognized myself and Pomona and a few students by name.”

“Yet no one knows her?”

“No.”

“Hmm…” her father concluded before stepping in a half-circle around her and Professor Sprout to stand in front of them. “Pomona, if you would please turn the girl in my direction.”

The woman’s hold on Lottie only tightened. “She’s a little girl, Snape.”

Irritation flashed across her father’s face. “I can see that,” he grumbled.

Reluctantly, the professor extracted Lottie from her front and made her stand so she had to look at her dad again. “Where are you from?” he demanded, speaking much more harshly with her than was typical.

Miserable and frightened, Lottie did not answer immediately. Instead, she searched her father’s face, trying to understand what was happening. Was this man not her Sev? Even though his face was the same? His voice identical? His mannerisms a perfect mimicry? He cleared his throat at her and she jumped a little under the arm of Professor Sprout. Her fingers squeezed her arm reassuringly as her dad’s eyes turned upward to the woman’s face. As he glared at the professor, Lottie whispered. “Here, at Hogwarts.” Pleading, she continued, “With you and Edie. Darla’s in the dorms now, but technically with her and my sisters too.”

Her dad (or maybe his double?) stared at her. “I live alone,” he replied.

She bit her lip. “I _do_ live with you,” she insisted. “You’re my dad. I…” mind racing, she started to rattle off everything she knew about him. “You teach potions here. Your and Darla’s mum’s name is Eileen and your dad was Tobias. They died when Darla was very little in a fire. When you were my age you lived in the Muggle world. The only sweet you like is black licorice wands and you take your tea plain ‘cause that’s how you drank it growing up. I know your family didn’t have much money and so the milk your family had only gone toward your parents’ tea and cooking…”

He seemed stunned by everything she was telling him and behind her dad, Albus murmured, “She seems to know quite a bit about you.”

“I have no sister,” refuted Severus. “Nor a wife or any daughters. So I rather think it cancels out what she does know, hm?”

A sweaty panic overtook Lottie and she was going to argue, but before she could, Albus came to stand beside Severus. His eyes were appraising. “Perhaps not,” he replied. Reaching out to her, he said, “Child, can you tell me if anything _strange_ has happened to you today?”

“Besides this?” she questioned, tone high-pitched from the mess her emotions were in.

He smiled at her and said, “I think if you can relay your day to us we may be able to sort this all out.”

Slowly, she nodded. If it would fix whatever was going on, Lottie was all for it. “It was pretty normal,” she admitted. “Sev went to teach classes, Edie needed to do some shopping and took Calliope with her. Darla was in our quarters ‘cause she’s sick and didn’t want to sleep in her dorm. She was supposed to be watching me an’ my sisters Eileen and Essie in the lounge, but she fell asleep and we went to play hide n’ seek in the nearby classrooms.

"It was mine an’ Eileen’s turn to hide. I went into a really dusty room and I saw this old cabinet in one corner. I went to go hide in it. I opened it up an’ I squished myself on the very bottom shelf. Something was digging into my back so I wriggled around and saw it was this… not a snowglobe exactly, but close. It was really pretty. It had a mini Hogwarts inside and here were clouds at the top of the sphere. Making it cloudy, you know? Like it was outside.

"I shook it to see if snow would come down from them, but all that happened was they cleared away and the globe got brighter like it was sunny in there instead of cloudy. It was actually kind of wicked and I watched it for a while because I saw that little brooms with people on them were flying around Hogwarts too. It got boring eventually and I realized Essie hadn’t found me either. I was getting sore, so I got out and wandered out of the classroom to see if I couldn’t find my sisters.”

“Is that when you ran into Ms. Tonks and Ms. Jones?” questioned Professor Sprout.

Lottie bent her head back to stare up at the woman’s square chin. “Uh-huh.”

“Lottie,” said the headmaster, causing her to snap her attention back to the man. “This globe and classroom, could you take us to it?”

She bobbed her head in agreement. Relieved that they seemed not only interested in her story but appeared to believe it too. “Yeah!”

“Take us there, please,” requested the headmaster.

Stepping out of Professor Sprout’s arms, Lottie became the leader of their little party and re-traced the steps she’d taken that day to the still very dusty classroom. Going over to the cabinet she’d crawled out of just an hour again, she got back down on her hands and knees and reached into the bottom shelf for the globe. “Please be very careful not to shake it, child,” called Professor Dumbledore.

Lottie looked over her shoulder and flashed him a smile. “Yes, sir.” As instructed, she gripped the snowglobe in two hands and brought it out into the light slowly. Once it was outside the cabinet, she turned around and held it up for the headmaster and professors to see. “This is it,” she told them.

The headmaster’s face was troubled and Lottie bit her lip. “Did I do something wrong?” she asked.

Reaching down and taking the snow globe from her, he sighed. “No,” he answered. “This is not your fault.” Bringing out his wand, he cast several spells on the globe before shrinking it down and putting it in a pocket of his lurid ochre robes. “I will need to speak with several contacts,” he explained to Professor Sprout and Sev. “Possibly an Unspeakable from the Ministry as well.”

That panicky feeling from before shot through Lottie again twice as fast as before. “Why?” she demanded. “What’s happened?”

Eyes soft, the headmaster reached for one of her hands and pulled her to her feet. Keeping her hand firmly between his long fingers, he explained, “I believe this snowglobe is a Reality-Shifter.”

“A what?’ she whispered.

“There are many theories about existence. One is that there are many, many different worlds. Such as there being one world where the sky is purple instead of blue. In another, someone, such as Merlin, may not exist. This globe is supposed to take the user to different ones. They are very dangerous and very tricky objects. Once shaken, a witch or wizard will find themselves in a place that looks very much like their home but is not oftentimes. Getting back to your right home can be exceedingly difficult.”

“What was it doing down there?” demanded Lottie as she felt tears start to gather in the corners of her eyes. She hadn’t understood everything exactly. But she did figure out from the headmaster’s explanation she was in some different world from the one she knew and that getting home would be very hard to do.

A storminess overcame Professor’s usually bright eyes. “I do not know,” he answered. “It should not have been.”

Tears on her cheeks, Lottie asked, “What’s going to happen to me?”

“We will take care of you,” he assured, squeezing her hand, which he still held. “For tonight, you can stay in the infirmary and tomorrow, I will begin to make arrangements for you—”

“—I want to stay with Sev,” cut in Lottie. Maybe the man wasn’t her dad _here_ , but he was her dad.

The headmaster fell silent and the three adults shared a look. “Child—” the headmaster started only for Lottie to cut him off again.

“He’s still my dad,” she insisted, glaring first at him, then at Sev. “He can look in my head. If you know how to do that here, anyway. I haven’t been lying.”

Her not-dad looked affronted at her words and the headmaster sighed. “That may not be the best idea…”

“ _Look_ ,” she insisted, staring Sev down and ignoring the headmaster. “You’ll see I’m right.”

His gaze changed and Professor Sprout hissed, “Snape, she is a _little girl_!”

The man shot the older witch a glare. “What of it? She has offered and clearly her father, a different me, has performed legilimency on her.”

Lottie was only a little surprised when Sev’s eyes connected with hers again that she felt him rifling through her memories, looking at the earlier events of the day and then further back too. When he stopped, she placed a hand to her head, a slight headache starting behind her temples. “Sev doesn’t do it nearly so fast,” she whispered. “I’m dizzy.”

The man looked unconcerned by her remark and both Professor Sprout and the headmaster were looking at Sev with disapproval. Lottie didn’t let it bother her. Instead, she stumbled forward and grabbed at her not-dad’s robe. “I want to stay with you,” she insisted. “I know you.”

He frowned. “You do not,” he argued.

She scowled up at him. That was a lie. “You said before I knew a lot about you, even if you don’t have a sister, wife, or daughters.”

The man pressed his lips into a displeased line. However, before he could come up with a rebuke, the headmaster placed a hand on his shoulder. “This will be tricky to solve, but it will be. She would not stay with you for a very long time.”

“You cannot be serious,” replied her not-dad, glaring at Professor Dumbledore. 

While at the same time Professor Sprout murmured, tone tremulous, “Surely someone else would be a better option…”

The old man was not put-off in the least by the stare Sev was leveling him with nor Professor Sprout’s fretful wringing of her hands. “The girl has been through enough, we do not need to add to her turmoil by placing her someplace she would be uncomfortable.”

“How, pray tell, are you expecting me to watch her?” demanded the man as he crossed his arms. “I have classes to teach during the day, essays, and exams that need grading in the evening, and twice a week I am required to patrol the castle at night. Also, let us not forget I am who is called for whenever issues arise with my students as Head of Slytherin!”

“You may leave her with Poppy in the infirmary during the day,” replied the headmaster. “Ms. Lottie should be able to entertain herself relatively well with a little supervision.” He turned a smile on her then. “Spending Severus’s teaching hours in the infirmary will suit you, won’t it?”

Lottie knew it wasn’t actually a question, even so, she nodded and smiled. “Yes! I like visiting with my Poppy.”

Severus raised an eyebrow, seemingly interested. “You call her by her first name?”

She shrugged. “She’s basically our healer. She helped me an’ Eileen be born. We go see her for everything you an’ Edie can’t fix.”

Her not-dad was quiet, taking the information in. He then turned to Professor Dumbledore and furrowed his brows. “That still does not address the issue of night patrols and grading.” 

The old man shifted the smile he was still wearing to Severus. “You may call a house-elf to sit in your quarters during your patrols. I’m sure they will be pleased to be of assistance.” Starting to chuckle, he remarked, “As for when you are doing your grading, much as she will be able to with Poppy, I suspect Ms. Lottie will be able to entertain herself.” He glanced at her. “Won’t you?”

Lottie nodded eagerly. “If you have some quidditch dolls or strings for me to make bracelets with I can be really good,” she promised. Lottie bounced eagerly. “Oh! And nail varnish. When I paint my nails I’m quiet _and_ still.”

Both the headmaster and Professor Sprout were laughing. Her not-dad looked sour. “A trip to Hogsmeade will be in order it seems,” he muttered. Then, to Professor Dumbledore, he said, “I still believe this will end badly.”

The old man stopped laughing. Reaching out, he placed a reassuring hand on Severus’s shoulder and told him, “I think you will surprise yourself, but if it does take a poor turn, I am a firecall away and new arrangements can be made.”

“That won’t be necessary,” said Lottie in the same cadence as her not-dad when he was smug. “This _will_ work.”

This appeared to startle both Sev and Professor Sprout and draw yet another chortle from the headmaster. Before an uncertain silence could overcome the small group, Lottie’s stomach gurgled, reminding her she had not eaten since breakfast.

His bearings regained at the sound, Severus sighed and glanced to the room’s clock. He said, “It is nearly time for dinner. I suppose a visit to the kitchens is necessary?”

Lottie smiled. She _was_ hungry. “Yes, please!”


	2. Getting to Know Lottie

Staring at the little girl as she slurped the liquid out of her bowl of stew, Severus felt the frown on his face deepen. The girl said she was his, and the memories in her head certainly showed she was _treated_ as his, but… She looked not an ounce like him. He couldn't (didn't) want to believe another him a different world would be fool enough to believe this girl was actually his blood daughter.

If she wasn't his blood child, who's daughter was she and why had Severus given her his name? What was Severus's history with her mother? What had compelled him to marry her and claim her oldest daughters (the glimpses he'd seen of the younger two, especially the black-haired girl, had left him no doubts about his part in their creation)? They were questions he itched to ask but felt would not get him answers.

The girl seemed completely unaware there was no blood shared between them from how she looked and spoke to him. If she knew, she would no doubt not smile so frequently at Severus. As he brooded, the girl placed her bowl down and reached for her cup of pumpkin juice. Like she had with her stew's liquid, she downed it all with ill-mannered speed.

Once she put her cup down with a clatter, she grinned at Severus and asked, "Can I have a biscuit?"

He looked toward a pair of house-elves who were in the middle of cleaning up vat-sized pots from cooking students and staff dinner. "You," he called. "The girl would like a biscuit."

One of the elves snapped to it and a moment later, Lottie had a biscuit between her fingers.

"Edie says we should say please and thank you to everyone," she told him with a reproachful look.

Severus rolled his eyes. What an impudent little thing. If it had been a student spoke like that, he would have been in a rage already. However, the way the girl stared at him… It reminded Severus of himself. She was most definitely not his daughter by blood, but it seemed, somewhere, she was his all the same.

Instead of addressing her scolding, he said, "Edie. That is your mother?"

The girl nodded between bites of her biscuit. "Yesh," she answered, mouth full.

He scowled at her for the distasteful behavior and she closed her lips. When she spoke again, her mouth was empty. "I guess I've never thought too much about it, but we've just always called you Edie and Sev. Probably 'cause of Darla."

"Your aunt," he said as he recalled the girl telling him he had a sister.

Lottie bobbed her head. "Yes. You and Edie mostly have raised her since Grandma Eileen and Grandpa Tobias died in a fire when she was very little."

"Hm," he replied. "How did I meet this Edie? I do not recall knowing one from my school days."

The little girl crinkled her nose. "She didn't go to Hogwarts or any school," she answered. "Her parents died when she was little, like Darla, and then Edie's mean aunt and uncle kept her and made her raise her cousins till she ran away." Expression brightening, she said, "That's when you hired her to be Darla's nanny and then you got married and had us!"

Severus surmised there was so much more to the story than what the girl was telling him. Unfortunately, given her age, it was unlikely she knew it. Severus didn't believe in softening truths, but he also didn't care to talk about his childhood. If what little she'd had to say about her mother was to be believed, Severus suspected this Edie probably felt the same as him in regards to her youth.

Lottie likely only had a very vague idea of his and her mother's past.

Smiling at him as if he weren't Hogwarts's most hated professor, the girl said, "I know you don't have a Darla here, or us, I guess, but do you have a wife? Children? Maybe cousins? Are my grandparents still alive?"

Severus looked away from the girl. "No," he said. "It is just me. It has been for some time. My mother… She passed after a fall down the stairs during my fifth year at Hogwarts and my father, in a fire, a few years later."

The girl turned into a slumped heap in her chair, lip quivering. "Oh," she whispered. "That's so sad."

He shifted, uncomfortable with the girl's sympathy. No one had felt sorry for him in years. _Severus_ hadn't felt sorry for himself (in regards to his lack of family) in years. "It was a long time ago," he said to her, in an awkward attempt to stop the tears he could see beading on her lashes.

"If I lost my you or my Edie I'd be sad forever and ever," she replied in a warbling tone.

He sighed. "You're very young," he said. "When you are older, when you see your parents and their flaws more clearly… Their losses will not be so terrible."

He was sure of this. Severus didn't know and would likely never know how different his life was from the Severus that was Lottie's father, but in all the memories he'd rifled through, he'd worn long-sleeves around his children. He had a strong feeling the man had been (or was?) a Death-Eater, even if it was only for a very short time before he took in his orphaned sister. Someday Lottie would discover this and the adoration she talked of her father with would die.

She would not be disappointed to see him, a Death-Eater, dead.

Clearly affronted at his suggestion, the girl pulled a face at him. "That's stupid," she declared, irking Severus, who did not care for being insulted by a _child_. "He's my dad. He could tell me he worked for You-Know-Who and I'd still love him the same."

Severus bit down so hard on his tongue he tasted blood. When he felt he could speak safely again, he got up from the table they were seated at and said to Lottie in a tone far sharper than he intended, "It is time we go to my quarters. It's been a very long day and I have classes right away tomorrow."

-O-

Severus brought the little girl with him into his quarters. As the portrait shut behind them, a wave of sudden self-consciousness overcame him. He was not a slovenly man by any means, but he didn't keep his quarters exactly pristine either. Severus glanced down at the girl, who was staring out at his lounge area with a small furrow between her brows. Moving forward into his home, he began to cast silent spells to clean up some of the clutter sprawled out on the available surfaces around his sitting area. As he did so, he began to think about where he would keep the child.

His hope was they would have this righted tomorrow, but he knew better. When magic went this wrong… He could have this unexpected guess for some time. Severus put a hand on one of his hips and gave the alcove off of his lounge room an appraising look. It wasn't terribly large right now and just fit the desk and the chair he had in it, but with an extension charm and some drapes… It could become a makeshift bedroom for a time. He nodded to himself, satisfied.

That would be tomorrow's project after classes.

Turning on his heels, he returned his attention to the girl. She was still rooted to the floor by the portrait. She was looking at him with dubious eyes that put him ill at ease. On any other child, he'd not be the least bit bothered to by such a look. Typically it meant they knew he wasn't a man to be taken lightly and would cause him no trouble. However, in some other place, this child was _his_ (for some reason). Unbidden, memories of Tobias came to mind. He shook his head. Severus _knew_ there was absolutely no way the child was being raised as he had been. Severus had known from the time he was very small if he ever had a child himself, it would never know the pain he had. He refused to believe in another world a different Severus wouldn't feel the same.

Even so, as he approached the child, he put away his wand and kept his empty hands in her view. Stopping a step away from her, he stared down at the girl as she looked up. "I will see about converting the alcove where I do my grading into a room for you tomorrow," he explained. "For tonight, you can sleep on the sofa."

She frowned anew. "You don't have an extra bedroom?"

Severus could not help but roll his eyes at the child. What would a bachelor like himself need an extra room for? Unable to entirely keep the sneer from his voice, he asked the child, "It's just I who lives here, why would I need an extra room?"

"I dunno, for mates?" she suggested, looking away from him. Shifting from foot to foot, she said, "Sometimes, during the summer, Eileen, Darla, and me will spend the night at the Bones's. They've got an extra bedroom we sleep in there." Severus's hands twitched at the mention of the Bones. He'd seen the girl's memories earlier, had seen her playing with _three_ Bones children. It had left him terribly shaken. In this world, there was only one Bones child. The daughter of the Bones brother who'd been clever enough to go into hiding the spring before the war's end.

How Edgar Bones's children survived he didn't know. Here, Severus had been the one to find them in their home the night of their murders. He'd alerted Pyrites and Mulciber to them, watched as they killed the boys… Had Lottie's Severus not been there? Or had he not told Mulciber and Pyrites about the children and, instead, left them there to be found by Order members after he reported to Albus? How had he managed to convince them the children were gone? Could Severus have done the same? Could there have been three Bones children in this world too if he'd been braver? Cared more about the lives of two small children?

When he replies to the girl, after a belated amount of time, he cannot conceal all of his self-loathing from his tone. "Bully for them," he said, sounding oddly sour about their extra bedroom.

The girl gave him a strange look for his comment. Severus let it be. "Your lounge room is kind of dark," she said after a while of staring. "Can I have extra lights?" she demanded with a pout. "I don't like it."

Severus looked around and scoffed. It wasn't _dark_ , it was dim. The way he liked it to be to help with the migraines his students gave him during the day. He looked to the girl, who was still glowering at him. He brought out his wand and summoned two candles from a nearby shelf. Lighting them, he placed them on the table beside the sofa and all but jeered at the child, "Will this do, little madam?"

The child's pout only deepened. "Edie doesn't like it when you talk to us like that," she told him, almost scolding in tone.

Severus felt his irritation with the child grow. Crossing his arms, he snapped at her, "As we've covered already today, I do not know an Edie, nor is there one here."

Instead of backing down, she balled her hands at her side and raised her chin to yell, "I know that! I'm just _telling_ you."

Severus laughed humorlessly. "Rather pointlessly," he said. What some woman he didn't know thought about the way he spoke to children didn't matter to him. Especially when the child in question was one that wouldn't be his problem for very long.

The girl huffed and threw herself on his sofa with much more force than necessary. As she bounced in place, he put away his wand and told her, "Take off your shoes."

The girl didn't waste a second and kicked them both off before she curled herself up in a ball at the end of the sofa furthest from him. Wrapping her skinny arms around her knees, she asked, "Can I have an extra thick blanket too."

He exhaled and went to his old, battered school trunk against the nearby wall and opened it the Muggle-way and brought out a quilt he kept in it. As he handed it down to her, she whined at him, "Why do you live in the dungeons anyway? They're _cold_."

Severus frowned. "I live here because it is nearest to my classroom," he said, not hiding from her how stupid a question he thought it was.

The girl glared at him for a moment before she turned her eyes to the quilt. Tracing the lines of one of the squares, she said, "You could move your classroom _and_ your quarters somewhere warmer."

Severus made a frustrated noise in the back of his throat. He was tired. He was sick of dealing with this argumentative child and he wanted to be alone to _think_. "I will not be moving just because it's too cold for a temporary inconvenience!" he growled at her.

Her head snapped up at his words, a look of shock on her face before tears began to pool in her eyes. "You're mean!" she decried. "I don't like you."

Severus ran a hand through his hair and exhaled. He was too tired for this. "Go to bed," he told the girl, "this will all be over soon enough and you will all but forget this in time."

Face now wet and expression fierce, she spat, "No, I won't! I'll remember forever and ever that you were mean to me and you didn't care that I'm cold and it's dark and I don't have a bed."

An uncomfortable feeling began inside his stomach. Instead of trying to understand it, Severus ignored it in favor of giving an end of the girl's quilt a tug and insisting, more forcefully, "Sleep. Now."

Lottie kicked at his hand and Severus had to restrain himself from slapping her as she screamed, "I want Edie!"

"She is not here!" he roared back at the girl.

In his face now, she yelled with a bright pink face, "She could exist! I know she could!" She jabbed him in the chest with a finger and said, " _You_ do, so does Professor Dumbledore and Sprout, and every other grown-up I've known my whole life."

The palms of his hands stinging from the bite of his nails, slowly, Severus backed away from the child. "We will discuss it tomorrow," he said in a low, controlled voice. Not looking at her, he said, "Sleep. I will not tell you again."

Sniffling, the child grumbled, "You better mean it."

Severus tensed more if it were possible. Glaring at the girl, he hissed, "You're an insufferable child, aren't you?"

"Back home, Sev says that too," the child whispered as she slid down the arm of the sofa to lay on the cushions.

A little thrill of vindication spiked inside of Severus. He _knew it_. Even there, in the world Lottie came from, he was not a good man, let alone father. "Oh, so he isn't the perfect father you've been making him out to be?" he sneered at the girl.

"When did I say that?" the child huffed, now on her side with the quilt pulled up tightly beneath her chin. "When Sev says it, I know he doesn't mean it. But you…" she blinked her eyes rapidly. "I think you do," she murmured before hiding herself entirely beneath the quilt.

The slight high he'd felt disappeared as quickly as it came. "Lottie," he said, at a loss.

The child stayed beneath her quilt. "Goodnight, Severus," she replied, her voice muffled.

Their conversation effectively ended, Severus sighed. "I will see you in the morning," he told the girl before leaving the lounge for his bedroom.

-o-O-o-

Severus ignored the stares of students as he guided the little girl to the infirmary. It was taking quite a lot of effort considering he was also ignoring that the child next to him was _galloping_ through the corridors instead of walking at a respectable, speedy stride like he was. He wanted to scold her, but she did not seem to be doing it to make a show of herself. The girl simply seemed _happy_. After her maudlin display last night before bed, he was relieved. He'd been worrying he would have to explain why Lottie seemed in low spirits to Pomfrey and others who'd no doubt be suspicious he'd done something to the child.

As they traveled from his quarters to the infirmary, the child began to wave occasionally at students. Students he imagined she recognized from her other Hogwarts. Some returned her wave, startled into the action on instinct, others just stared back in shock. A few turned immediately to friends and began to whisper.

Severus held back a sigh. Classes were going to be difficult today, no doubt. He wondered if shutting down students would be the most effective way to handle this peculiar situation or if he should not make a story for them. A story would stop any wild speculating and kill some of their curiosity, he knew. Yet he'd have to make sure the girl could keep it up as well and that the other professors were aware if students approached them for answers instead.

He resisted the urge to massage his temples. This was quickly becoming more of a headache than he cared to manage.

Finally reaching the doors of the infirmary, Severus turned his attention to the little girl smiling at him (it seemed not only had her spirits risen, but her anger at him was also gone). "You will behave for Madam Pomfrey today or when we go to Hogsmeade to buy you necessities, you will not get any dolls like you were nattering about at breakfast."

She gave him a glower he was startled to recognize as his own. "I'd _never_ be naughty for Poppy! She's my favorite." Glare disappearing, she smirked and batted her eyes at him in a clearly manipulative ploy. "After you and Edie, anyway."

He huffed, unimpressed. "Yes, well," he grumbled before he pulled the door open. "I will make sure that is the case later."

Together, they stepped into the infirmary. Severus was unsurprised Pomfrey was waiting for them not far from her tall doors. "Severus," she said as she approached them. "And hello little dear, are you Lottie?" she asked.

The little girl nodded. "I am."

He watched the matron's lips twitch with a smile. "I've been told you are going to be my helper for the time being."

Leaving his side to join Pomfrey's, Lottie began to hop in place. "Oh, yes! I can help. I'm very good at recognizing potions and organizing cupboards."

"My, that will be helpful," she said to the child while looking at him, eyes shining.

Severus didn't return her mirth, just crossed his arms, and sighed. He had a fifth-year class to teach in fifteen minutes. Some of the light in the witch's gaze dimmed and she returned her attention to the little girl. "Why don't you run along to my office to wait for me while I speak with Severus, hm?"

Lottie agreed happily. "Can I take a treat from the jar in the back of your filing cabinet?"

The matron gave the girl a surprised look. "My," she said after a moment, "I must not be very different at all from the Poppy you know."

"No," agreed Lottie, squinting up at them. " _You_ are very familiar!" Lottie reached up and twisted one of her frayed plaits. "Except you don't have quite as many freckles on your face for it being so early in the fall. You must not go fishing, huh?"

Pomfrey stared down at the little girl, her mouth in a small 'o'. She shook her head. "I haven't fished much at all since I was a girl," she replied.

Lottie nodded as if it made perfect sense. "You said that to me before a few years ago, but then I _begged_ and _begged_ for you to take me. Now you take me and my sisters fishing for a whole weekend every summer before classes start!"

With that, she scampered off toward Pomfrey's office, leaving her and Severus alone.

"She's an interesting little thing," the witch said to him.

Severus nodded. "Irritating at times too."

"If you do find yourself overwhelmed by her, send her to me or another professor, won't you?" pleaded the witch, eyes wide. "She's so young."

Severus frowned and looked away. "I tried to insist she be placed in another's care," he told Pomfrey. "The girl wouldn't have it."

"Children will eat sweets until they're ill," chided the matron. "They don't know what's best for themselves. It's up to adults to make the hard decisions, even if it does end in tears or a strop."

"Tell that to the headmaster!" snapped Severus, annoyed at the lecture. "He insisted in spite of my reservations."

Pomfrey pursed her lips, clearly displeased. It was only when she pinched the bridge of her nose and grumbled, "I've known him the better part of a century and I still don't understand how that man thinks," that Severus realized it was not him she was cross with, but the headmaster.

A little relieved to see that her anger was not directed at him any longer, Severus waited patiently for Pomfrey to gather herself. When she returned her gaze to him, he raised a single eyebrow and waited.

"Any time, day or night, wherever you may be in the castle or outside it, do not hesitate to call for me," she said. "I _will_ help you with her, Severus Snape and I will not judge you," she swore to him.

Severus nodded and let the smallest of smiles lift his lips. There were very few he trusted at their word, but Pomfrey was one of them. From the time he was a student, she had been on his side as much as someone like her could be. When she said she would do something, she did. She'd never given him false hope or not carried out a threat when the conditions for it arose. "Thank you," he said, imbuing his voice with a small level of warmth. "I will remember that."

She smiled. "Go on, I have her," she urged. Cocking her head to the side, she remarked, "If I recall, your first class today is Gryffindors and Slytherins, isn't it?"

As he turned away and pulled the door to the infirmary open, he nodded. "Yes, that's right," he said. "I'll do my best to make sure none need to visit you today."

She laughed. "I have no doubts you will." His steps faltered a moment when she said, "You're a man of your word."

-O-

When Severus walked into his classroom, his students fell into a hush. This wasn't entirely unusual. Sometimes, especially when his class was Gryffindors and Slytherins, they became silent if they'd been up to mischief or fighting before his entry. Neither house was keen to lose points and knew Severus had no qualms about creating serious dents in their counts if they were being unruly. However, today Severus knew that was not the reason for their sudden muteness or watchful stares. Ignoring them all, he turned his attention to his blackboard and began to scrawl the instructions for the day's potion down.

As he did so, he said, over his shoulder, "I am sure you are all aware that there is a guest at Hogwarts. She is…" he paused, deciding his next words carefully, "…a relative…" he said. Finished with writing his instructions he turned around to face his students. He let his gaze, stern, and threatening, pass over each and every student in the room. "Events have occurred and for the time being, she will be staying here, at Hogwarts, with me."

Shock crossed many students face, horror on a few, and a couple of students looked near laughter. Severus closed his eyes when he saw one hand slowly rise into the air. "Yes, Mr. Weasley?" he asked through his teeth.

Charlie Weasley said, "What's her name?"

He frowned. It shouldn't _matter_ what her name was. They were never going to interact. If she wasn't with Pomfrey in the infirmary, she would be with Severus. It seemed it did, however, as it wasn't just Weasley watching him for an answer. "Her name is Lottie," he said. "She is eight and I expect her to be treated with politeness if you or anyone else encounters her in the corridors or on the grounds," he warned, casting a nasty scowl at all of his students.

Several looked cowed at his threat and he nodded to himself, satisfied. A couple of more hands rose into the air, but he ignored them. He'd given a sufficient amount of information on Lottie and any other questions they had would only lead the day's lesson astray. "Open your textbooks," he commanded. "Today we will be brewing…"

-o-O-o-

Early in the afternoon, after his last class, Severus walked into the infirmary to retrieve Lottie. From the back of the hall, he saw a little face pop out from behind Pomfrey's office door. A moment later, Lottie and the matron came out to meet him. The little girl was grinning at him, her messy plait redone in a new style. Lifting his gaze from her to Pomfrey, he asked, "How was the girl?"

"Lottie was lovely," she answered, eyes fond as she watched her skip to Severus.

The girl, now next to him, gave his sleeve a tug. He tensed. "Look!" she exclaimed, spinning around to give him a better look at the back of her head. "Poppy did my hair. She says this is a Dutch plait," she turned her head slightly, looking over her shoulder at him. "Isn't it pretty?"

He grunted an affirmative sound at her. Then, because he didn't entirely believe the witch, he leveled Pomfrey with a scrutinizing glare and asked, "No trouble at all?"

Her smile became slightly strained and she shook her head. "No," she replied. Then, a slightly amused light coming to her dark blue eyes, she said, "since you kept your promise, I had more than enough time to dedicate to keeping Lottie occupied."

"Hm," he said. Looking back at Lottie, who'd yet to let go of his sleeve, he remarked, "I suppose I will have to buy you your doll then, won't I?"

The girl gave him a cheeky smirk and said, "I'd like a team's worth, but I know that's too many to ask for at once." She batted her eyes at him. "Can I have two today?"

He pursed his lips, not pleased by her blatant attempts to manipulate him. Did her father, another version of himself, fall for such obvious ingratiating? He hoped not. This girl would grow up to be as bad as some of the spoilt girls he was constantly having to teach. "We shall see," he answered. "You need many things and then we need to speak with Professor Flitwick for assistance with creating your bedroom."

She let go of him and drooped. "Oh," she mumbled.

Pomfrey, who'd been watching them with an odd expression, focused solely on him. "Severus, let me give you some money for another doll," she said, fingers anxiously twisting around her wand. "Lottie has been such a good girl. "

He scowled at the matron, affronted at the very idea of taking money from her to pay for a _toy_ of all things. He didn't need it, he could afford a few outfits, toiletries, a doll or game, and any other odds or ends that may come up. "I do not need charity," he spat. He reached down, grabbing Lottie, and started to pull her toward the door.

The witch dogged their steps, saying, "This isn't charity!" Face pinkening, she snapped at Severus, "I would come with and buy her this _gift_ myself, but I must stay here." Severus paused in his escape and the witch shuffled back slightly. Rubbing the bridge of her nose, she sighed. "Silvanus has another class today." In a murmur beneath her breath, she added, "Merlin knows if I'm going to have any patients today, it will because of him." Severus felt his lips twitch with a smirk at the truthfulness of her statement and Lottie giggled into her hands.

He looked down at the top of her head a mild feeling of comradery in his chest. So her Kettleburn was as much a disaster as theirs was. Relaxing his stance, he let his hand fall off of Lottie's shoulder and said to Pomfrey, "Very well." He could accept the money if she intended from the start to gift Lottie a doll. Perhaps, if Lottie was as well behaved for him on their trip as she seemed to have been for the witch, she would come back to Hogwarts with _three_ dolls.

Severus was feeling a little magnanimous after how smoothly the day had gone in spite of the oddness surrounding it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thoughts?
> 
> Thank you for reading and please let me know your thoughts with a comment and/or kudo :)


	3. Adjustments

Her three new quidditch player dolls hugged tightly to her chest, Lottie watched in fascination as Severus, Professor Flitwick, and Professor McGonagall turned the little alcove that had been a study into a bedroom for her to sleep in. She awed as she saw the charms professor not only extend the room to twice its original size but turn the walls from dark stone to a blueish white. She smiled when she saw Professor McGonagall turn the traditional dark wood desk that’d been in the alcove into a four-poster bed for her. It looked a little bit like the beds she’d glimpsed in Darla’s dorm before, though, it didn’t have the canopy or curtains. She didn’t mind in the slightest. 

Lottie was just glad she’d be sleeping in a bed again instead of on a stiff sofa.

Her eyes then left the transfiguration professor and landed on her not-dad. He was glaring at a bookcase he’d been working very hard to turn into a chest of drawers to store her clothes. Unfortunately, it seemed it hadn’t quite shrunk as he wanted nor did the little knobs on the drawers look quite as raised as they should be. Professor McGonagall, who was finished with her initial task and had moved Lottie’s bed further down into the newly sized bedroom, turned just in time to see Severus glaring at his slightly off chest of drawers. She sighed at him and finished the job.

“Transfiguration was never your strongest skill,” she remarked in a sympathetic tone. Severus, however, did not appear to appreciate it as he sent her a particularly scathing glare. Lottie, a feeling of alarm rising in her, rushed toward the duo before they could get in a row.

“Thank you,” she said to the witch. “My bed is very nice, I can’t wait to sleep in it.”

Professor McGonagall ripped her gaze from Severus and fixed it on her. “You’re welcome,” she said, almost smiling. 

She held her dolls up for the professor to see. “D’you think you can ‘figure them a little bed too?”

“Don’t you dare,” her not-dad growled at the witch. “She’s been spoiled enough today.”

Lottie stuck her tongue out at Severus. “ _ You  _ did it!” she huffed. “I told you clothes from the secondhand shop were fine. I wear Darla’s old stuff all of the time!”

A slow smile spread across Professor McGonagall’s face. “Oh?” she said as Severus stared at Lottie, a look of betrayal twisting his features (why, though? What was wrong with others knowing he bought her pretty  _ new  _ outfits?)

She nodded. “Yes.” She tugged on the hem of the purple button-front dress she’d changed into the minute they came back to Severus’s quarters after their shopping trip. “It’s too bad I probably won’t be able to take it all home with me.” That was likely the only thing she was going to be sad about when she left, Lottie thought. All of these pretty new clothes and things being here while she was back in her Hogwarts with all of her old, blah stuff.

“We’ll find another little girl to take good care of everything you can’t take with you,” promised the witch, patting the top of Lottie’s head.

She frowned at the professor and huffed, annoyed at being misunderstood. Walking around her, she grabbed Severus’s hand. Much as he had the last several times she touched him, he jolted and Lottie narrowed her eyes. Why did he always act like it was such a surprise for her to want to hold his hand or get his attention by tugging at his robe? Even if he wasn’t  _ her  _ dad, Severus was still the same person as him.

“I’m tired,” she lied. “Are they done so I can use my new bed yet?”

“Yes,” piped up Professor Flitwick as he appeared from the right of the transfiguration professor. He smiled at Severus. “I took the liberty of changing the oil painting you had on the wall into a window of sorts for Ms. Lottie.” Looking at her now, he said, eyes twinkling, “It shows the quidditch pitch outside now. I had a feeling you would quite like waking up to view of it in the mornings while you are here.”

Lottie grinned back at the tiny man. “Thank you!” she gushed. “I’m gonna  _ love  _ that!”

The little professor looked completely chuffed at her excitement as Severus, beside her, murmured, “Yes, thank you both for your help.”

“It’s no trouble,” assured the little professor.

A full smile on her face, Professor McGonagall knelt down and shook hands with Lottie. “It has been a pleasure meeting you,” she said. “Perhaps, since you’ve had enough spoiling today, I will stop by the infirmary with a doll bed tomorrow between a couple of my classes.”

Lottie gave the woman a wide, delighted grin as Severus snarled, “You old—”

“—Little pitchers, Severus,” cut in the professor as she stood back up, her smile strained as she stared her not-dad down.

Severus fell silent, a brooding expression on his face as the charms professor exchanged similar farewells with Lottie, but without the promise of more gifts. Once the two were gone from her not-dad’s quarters, she looked up at him.

Seeming to feel her gaze on him, he glanced down at her. Then again when she didn’t stop looking at him. “What is it?” he snapped. 

“You said we’d discuss Edie today.”

His cross features smoothed with surprise. However, they quickly became unreadable as he strode away from her and out of her new, makeshift bedroom. Lottie dogged his steps and followed him into the much darker lounge area. He continued to ignore her as he shuffled around some books and parchment on his coffee table and then levitated other baubles from his old study onto shelves and other surfaces in the room. Lottie knew from her Sev that his sudden silence didn’t necessarily mean a refusal to speak, but she was anxious anyway as she dodged zooming trinkets and books to fill in the empty spot next to her not-dad. 

Staring up at him, she whispered, “You promised.”

He didn’t look at her as he said, “What, exactly, is there to discuss?”

Lottie pursed her lips. “She’s out there,” she said.

“What if that’s true?” he demanded. “What would you have me do?”

Lottie shrugged, feeling lost all of a sudden. What would she have Severus do? It was very possible her mum had a whole different life with somebody else and somebody else’s kids. If Lottie really thought about it, she figured she’d just like to know she existed. Maybe see her. Lottie felt confident Edie would make her feel safe, even now, even if they were strangers.

That’s what she needed the most. Lottie needed to feel safe. She was  _ so scared  _ right now and was terrified she’d never get to go home to her Hogwarts and family even though the headmaster said she would.

“See?” her not-dad said like her silence meant something more than it did. “You have no idea,” he sneered, looking down his nose at her. “Unless you can think of a good reason to disrupt yet another person’s life, don’t ask for her again.”

Lottie’s chin began to quiver. A ball of hurt and outrage and sadness forming in her gut, she howled, “I hate you!” at the man.

This seemed to give him quite the shock as he went stock-still and did nothing as she ran away from him and back into her alcove-turned-room. The drapes Severus had left hanging in front of her room to close it off from the lounge were not nearly as satisfying to shut as a door, but she made sure to do it with a furious flourish all the same. Lottie threw herself on her new bed, smooshing her dolls beneath her front. For what felt like forever, she sobbed into her pillow.

Not once did Severus try to come and comfort her or apologize.

-o-O-o-

It was after lunch that Poppy seemed to finally realize that everything was not well with Lottie. She wanted to be cross with the matron, but couldn’t bring herself to. Like Severus, Poppy was not  _ her  _ Poppy. She didn’t know Lottie so well she could pick up her mood in an instance.

Besides that, she was distracted all morning trying to find a way to soothe the upset stomachs of the youngest Weasleys at Hogwarts. Apparently, they’d tried inventing some kind of potion to make them fake-ill, but it had made them truly ill. Lottie sniffed to herself. Served them right. Her dad said you shouldn’t test anything on yourself you couldn’t be sure was going to work right. 

Seated on the other side of her desk from Lottie, Poppy stared at her. “You’re not eating your lunch,” she remarked.

Lottie continued to brush her doll’s hair. She’d brought one of her two beaters with her to the infirmary today. She liked the beater best because his hair was the longest and meant she could style it in lots of different ways. She was thinking two bunches for the afternoon. Maybe, this evening, she’d put it in a braid. Like Edie did with her hair before bed to keep it from getting badly tangled while she slept.

“Are you well?” pressed Poppy.

She smiled at the matron, the stranger. “Yes,” she lied.

The witch’s eyes narrowed and she asked, “Severus hasn’t… upset you, has he?”

Lottie felt her smile run away from her face and she stared right into Poppy’s eyes. She didn’t know why, but everyone in this Hogwarts seemed to be very concerned Severus was going to hurt her. The thing was, he would  _ never _ . She knew it right to very soul  _ any  _ Severus would hurt himself before he would lay a finger or hex on her.

He’d told her once, when she was six or so, during a calm moment after she threw a tantrum that his dad used to punish with his hands and, sometimes, his belt. Severus also told Lottie he’d never do that to her or her sisters or Darla. He’d  _ swore  _ to himself he wouldn’t.

Lottie believed all Severus Snapes, no matter the reality, had made the same promise to themselves, children or no children in their lives.

“No,” she answered. “He didn’t do anything.” She sighed. “I miss my mum.”

The matron’s brows came together and her gaze softened. “I’m sorry,” she said.

“It’s fine,” Lottie lied as she blinked back tears. “It’ll get better, right? I know lots of kids miss their mums when they come to Hogwarts and get over it.”

Poppy reached over her cluttered desk and their meals to touch Lottie’s cheek. “It will, but you are allowed to be sad while you  _ are  _ sad.”

Lottie didn’t know how to respond. It was still so strange to her that it was people like Poppy, whom she loved and felt were family, were the ones trying to comfort her instead of her parents. They usually left important conversations like this to Sev and Edie. Before she had to say anything back, a knock resounded on the rich-colored wood of the office door.

Both she and Poppy looked up to see Professor McGonagall was standing in the doorway. In her arms was a small doll bed that matched Lottie’s own. “I have a gift for Ms. Lottie,” she said to them.

She bounced up from her chair, causing it to clatter to the ground. The matron flinched slightly behind her desk and Lottie winced. “Sorry!” she shouted before rushing up to the transfiguration professor. All but dancing at the woman’s feet, she begged, “Oh, can I see it?”

The witch chuckled before she handed it down to her. Once Lottie had it in her hands to inspect, Professor McGonagall put her hands behind her back. Smiling at the new toy once she realized all three of her dolls would be able to sleep comfortably in it, Lottie gushed, “Thank you!”

Putting it down on the smooth stone floor at both their feet, she put her beater in the bed. He looked very comfortable, she thought. Picking the bed, with her doll still in it, up, she said, “It’s perfect.”

“I’m happy you like it,” said Professor McGonagall in a warm tone. She then reached down and placed a hand on the back of Lottie’s shoulders. “Would you mind stepping out a moment for me? I need to speak with Poppy in private.”

Lottie squashed down her annoyance and squinted her eyes up at the stern-faced witch. “About me?” she demanded.

The transfiguration professor blinked. Then, a slow amused smile passed over her lips. “No, child,” she assured. Eyes flickering toward the main room of the infirmary, she said, “It’s about my troublesome duo.”

That was okay then. Bobbing her head, Lottie let the witch guide her out of the office and skipped over to the nearest bed once the door shut behind her. Placing her beater and new doll bed down on it, she clambered up and began to hum a quiet tune to herself as she reached into the pocket of her soft red robe for the little brush that came with her doll. She was going to put his hair in those bunches she’d decided on earlier. However, she’d hardly gotten his hair separated when she heard one of the infirmary’s two patients whisper to the other:

“Fred, it’s the little girl staying with Snape.”

The other boy, Fred, replied, “She seems awfully cheery for having spent a night with him.”

Lottie puffed out her cheeks in annoyance. Severus may have been mean last night, but that was no reason to be sour  _ now _ . Especially since Poppy was almost as wonderful as  _ her  _ Poppy. Ripping the brush none-too-gently through a soon-to-be-bunch, Lottie ignored the two in favor of tying up her beater’s hair.

So studious was she in shutting her eyes to them Lottie ended up leaping from the bed when one of the boys said, practically in her ear, “You play with quidditch dolls? So does my sister.”

When Lottie whirled around to face the twins, who had the same red hair and freckles as her Weasleys back home, she saw they both looked just a tad sheepish. “Sorry,” said twin on the left. “George and me didn’t mean to frighten you.”

She scowled at them. “You didn’t!” she denied.

The pair shared a look of disbelief. “You hear that? We didn’t scare her.”

“Could have fooled me,” snorted the one that had to be Fred, since he called the other George a moment ago.

Eyes darting between the two, Lottie felt her shoulders sink. She’d always thought she’d be excellent at telling apart twins, seeing as she was one herself, but she was wrong. These two were  _ exact  _ copies, unlike her and Eileen who were reflections of each other and could be told apart if stood side by side. 

“So, kid?” said Fred.

Lottie frowned at him. “Huh?”

George made an exasperated noise. “He asked what Snape’s quarters are like,” he grumbled, crossing his arms, annoyed.

Her frown deepened briefly. Finally, because she could see no harm in it, she answered, “Dark and cold.” 

They smirked at each other. “Who would have thought?” said Fred to George.

Lottie didn’t know why, but she felt terribly affronted at his words. That was her dad he was talking about even if Severus wasn’t  _ Sev _ . Glaring at the two, she said, “It’s got lots of neat stuff in it, though.” Which was true. She was itching to do some exploring and look at some of the baubles on his higher shelves more closely. She’d have to do it when he was gone. Convincing house-elves to keep secrets wasn’t terribly hard in her Hogwarts, hopefully, that’d be the case here too.

“Oh, yeah?” George replied, eyes sparking with interest. “Like what?”

Lottie floundered. “I don’t know yet,” she answered after a bout of too-long silence. “I’ve only slept there two nights so far. It’s all up high and I hafta get it down or go up to it somehow.”

Both appeared a little disappointed with her answer and Lottie felt stupid. She shouldn’t have said anything. Now they thought she was just another dumb little kid—

“How exactly are you two related?” asked Fred. “It’s gotten around he’s a relative, but…” he scrunched up his face, making the freckles on his face shift into new, interesting patterns. “No offense, you two don’t look alike  _ at all _ .”

Lottie was not offended. She’d heard that plenty of times from students and adults alike. “I take after Edie’s side,” she answered simply.

“Edie?” echoed George.

She bit her lip. “Sorry,” she said. “That’s my mum. I call her that ‘cause it’s what my aunt always did. She’s only five years older y’see.”

George looked at Fred out of the corner of his eye. “What d’you think, George? Could we get away with calling Mum Molly?”

Fred pulled a face and shook his head. “We’d get a scourgify for sure,” he said.

Lottie giggled and, for some reason, the two actually looked quite happy at the sound. “He must not be treating her too badly if she can still laugh,” remarked George to Fred.

The other twin nodded his head. “I agree, Fred.”

“Why would you say that?” demanded Lottie, all humor abruptly dead. Angry, she marched over to them and gave one of the twins a shove. “You take it back!” she yelled. “Sev would  _ never  _ treat me badly!” 

The twin she pushed, Fred, stumbled back a step but seemed otherwise physically unaffected by her push. As he and his brother stared at her with wide, shocked eyes, from behind the three of them Poppy’s voice rang clearly:

“Ms. Lottie!” 

Lottie tensed. Not a heartbeat later, she and Professor McGonagall were between her and the twins. The transfiguration professor is talking to the boys in a low tone while Poppy stared down at her with hard eyes.

“Do you care to explain yourself, young lady?” she demanded.

She turned her head away. Lottie didn’t care to, actually. She’d be told she shouldn’t have resorted to violence no matter what was said. Sev was always telling her being his daughter wouldn’t stop him from docking points from Lottie if she didn’t learn to mind her temper and started fights as a student.

“It’s our fault,” one of the twins said, loud enough to be heard by all of them. “We sort of said in a way that we believed Professor Snape would treat her badly.”

“Like his students,” muttered the other twin, though, it was followed by a hard “oof!”. Lottie expected the first twin had gotten his brother in the side for that remark.

“Ms. Lottie should not have pushed you,” insisted Poppy, back now on her as she stared the twins down alongside Professor McGonagall. 

The transfiguration professor nodded her head. “Yes, she shouldn't have,” she agreed. “However, I am not pleased either of you would suggest  _ family  _ of Ms. Lottie would treat her poorly.”

“We’re sorry,” one of the twins said. Then, they appeared from around the professor’s form to look at Lottie with sad, sloping eyebrows and repeated, “We’re sorry.”

She nodded. “I am too,” she replied. “For pushing, er, one of you,” she stammered, cringing at herself for having already forgotten which brother it was she shoved.

He smirked. “Not a problem, my sister punches a lot harder.”

Lottie found herself glaring at him, irritation renewed. She didn’t like it being suggested she wasn’t  _ strong _ . She was. Just… not as strong as a girl with, oh, how many Weasley boys did Sev say there were before? She knew there were four at her Hogwarts right now. “If I had as many brothers as she does instead of sisters I’d be just as strong,” she snapped.

He snickered before disappearing behind Professor McGonagall again. Lottie’s fingers itched to grab him, but she didn’t. Instead, she balled them into fists and intensified her glower at the twins between the gaps in the witches separating them. Poppy sighed. “I think that’s enough interacting with the students, today,” she declared. Turning around, she took Lottie’s hand and started to usher them back to her office. “Thank you for stopping by, Minerva,” she said to the transfiguration professor.

“Of course,” replied McGonagall with a small, curt nod.

Lottie waved. “Bye! Thank you again for the doll bed!”

Not a moment later, they were in Poppy’s office, the door shut tightly behind them. Going back behind her desk, the matron asked, “Would you like me to warm your food for you?”

She shook her head and got back in her chair (which had been placed back on its feet at some point). Picking up the fork from among the sheets of parchment on the desk, Lottie said, “I don’t mind it cold.”

“Hm, good,” she said, sounding slightly miffed she’d turned down her offer.

Lottie just shrugged her shoulders and ate a piece of sausage. Sev and Edie had rules back home about mealtime. If she or her sisters couldn’t find the time to eat their food while it was warm, they could eat it cold. Lottie figured she should keep to the rule, even if Poppy didn’t know it, because she’d be back home eventually and it wouldn’t do to be out of practice then. 

-o-O-o-

Severus was pacing in front of her as he listed off rules for her to follow. “Do not leave these quarters,” he ordered as Lottie began to absently trace the dark purple pinstripe pattern of the wizard’s sofa. “Do not answer any fire-calls that may come through,” he continued. Severus paused in his pacing to turn to face her. Eyes sharp and lips pulled in a hard frown, he warned, “I have put in place spells to keep you out of my bedroom, but I will still know if you try to bypass them, do you understand?”

She smiled at Severus. “Perfectly,” she said with a bat of her lashes.

Instead of his glower disappearing at her “cute” reply, it deepened and Severus snapped, “Do not try to manipulate me.” Arms crossed he growled, “You will be punished if you do  _ anything  _ I told you not to.”

Lottie slumped against the high back of the sofa and nodded glumly. Sometimes, she just didn’t understand this Severus  _ at all _ . Seemingly satisfied with her reaction, Severus turned away and headed for the door out of his quarters. “I will be back from my staff meeting in an hour,” he said. “We will both have dinner after if you’ve behaved.”

“Bye, Sev,” she yelled after him.

He did not return her farewell. Lottie sighed, feeling just a little defeated. She wasn’t sure this Severus would ever warm up to her or treat her with an ounce of the love her own did.

A minute later, once she was sure she was alone and Severus wasn’t going to come back soon, she got off of his sofa and started to wander his quarters. Most of his walls were covered in shelving and cupboards. All of the shelves were cluttered with things, books, empty bottles, bottles of different ingredients, and bottles potions, as well as other miscellaneous potions equipment and trinkets.

Lottie scrunched her nose. Her family quarters weren’t exactly tidy either, but Edie made sure to keep the clutter to a minimum. Sev’s office looked quite a lot like Severus’s quarters, though, Lottie mused as she stopped in front of a shelving unit with a copper cauldron sitting on a low shelf. 

Perhaps it was why he had an office. 

She laughed to herself and was going to start on opening cabinets and cupboard doors to see what he kept out of view when something at the very top of the shelving unit caught her eye. It looked like an all too familiar Muggle biscuit tin from back home. Lottie didn’t think, she pulled the cauldron off the shelf and then used the now free space to pull herself up onto the unit. Climbing up another shelf, she managed to grasp the corner of the biscuit tin and slide it off the shelf. Once it sat, unbalanced, between her fingers, she all but threw herself off the shelves and to the hard stone floors of Severus’s quarters beneath.

Leaving the cauldron on the floor, she took the tin back with her to the sofa and sat down. She ran her fingers over the top of it and took a layer of dust off in the process. Sev kept his tin much nicer back home. But he also didn’t keep it on a shelf where it could get dusty, Lottie reminded herself.

Pulling up the dented and rusted lid with a little effort, Lottie peered inside with curious eyes. She was very interested to see if the mementos this Severus kept of his old mate Lily were the same as her Sev. Lottie found that like in her dad’s biscuit tin back home, there was a smooth stone (“When we were children, Lily went to the seaside with her family and brought it back to Cokeworth for me.”), a toy rocket, a handful of children’s drawings, as well as Muggle photos she knew were of Severus when he was little with Harry’s mum, Lily, inside. 

Lottie frowned when she realized the cards and letters he received from Lily during the year before her death wasn’t in the tin too. Had he put them somewhere else? She hadn’t expected the same things would be written in them (in fact, Lottie had been curious to see what the two  _ had  _ written about without Darla or her and Eileen to talk about), but surely his last words with her would be in this tin of memories as well? It made more sense to keep it altogether instead of spreading it out. There was less chance of anything getting lost.

She exhaled in frustration. Evidently, this Severus didn’t agree, however, as they weren’t here. Putting everything back in the tin, she shut it with a little more force than necessary. She was going to go and put it back where she found it, but the quarter’s door swung open and Lottie only had time to tuck the tin beneath the sofa.

Severus eyed her suspiciously. “I do not believe you spent the last forty minutes where I left you.”

She stuck out her lower lip. “I went to the bathroom,” she huffed, acting offended.

Her not-dad rolled his eyes. “What did you do?” he demanded, looking around the room. It didn’t take him five seconds to see the cauldron she’d left on the floor of his quarters. Walking past her and the sofa, he picked it up. “Nosey, were you?” he asked.

“I only looked at it for a minute,” she lied.

He frowned and put it back on his shelf. “You do not look with your hands,” he sneered.

Lottie, now staring at Severus over the back of the sofa, scowled back at him. “You didn’t say I couldn’t touch the stuff on your shelves,” she grumbled.

His frown lightened and, for a moment, she thought he was going to smirk. Then his glare deepened instead and he said, “Go wash up. I’ll call a house-elf to bring us something to eat before you are to go to your room and  _ be quiet  _ while I do my grading.”

Lottie scrambled off the sofa. She was nervous to leave the biscuit tin, especially in a place where he  _ could  _ see it if he only glanced there, but Lottie also knew not doing as she was told  _ would  _ bring the attention she feared to it. So, Lottie went and washed up. When she returned to the lounge, thankfully, Severus was distracted arranging their meals on the little table he had next to his quarter’s fireplace. 

It had only one gray-upholstered chair with dark wood arms with it when she first arrived, but since yesterday’s dinner in these quarters, he’d transfigured her a chair from a book. It was not quite as nice, though, it was similar in shape to the first chair without the cushions or arms. Lottie hadn’t said anything because she knew what would happen thanks to Professor McGonagall. Her not-dad did not appreciate his deficiencies being pointed out, even less so than her Sev did. 

Using the opportunity of his back being to her, Lottie ducked down and grabbed the biscuit tin from where she’d stashed it earlier. Clutching it tightly to her side with one hand, she walked into her bedroom and hid it with her dolls in their bed. She then plucked the daisy-speckled jumper she’d left in a pile on the floor by her chest of drawers up and started to shove it over her head as she walked out of her room and back into the main area of Severus’s quarters.

“It’s ready,” he said to her once she’d popped her head out of the collar of her jumper.

Lottie forced a wide smile across her face. “Thanks!” she chirped.

Taking his seat in his nicer chair, he waited for her to slide into the place across from him before he picked up his fork and began to cut into his dinner. Lottie glanced at her plate and found herself wrinkling her nose. Liver and onions? Ugh. Why did this have to be something her Sev and this Severus  _ both  _ liked?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading and please let me know your thoughts with a comment and/or kudo :)


	4. Piecing Together a Reality

Severus opened his eyes. There was that sound again. Turning over his sheets and duvet, Severus slipped his feet into the well-worn weather slippers he kept on the small rug next to his bed. Leaving his room, he walked the negligible distance between it and the lounge. Once there, he stopped in the threshold and strained his ears.

A high, almost keening whimper filled the air. Severus sighed and rubbed his cheek with the heel of his hand. She was crying again. This was the fifth time he’d woken to Lottie weeping in the middle of the night since she appeared two weeks ago. It was also the third time this week. 

A frown pulled at his lips. In two more days, Lottie would mark her third week at Hogwarts. Severus wasn’t entirely sure how he felt about that. Lottie, while irksome, was not entirely awful. He’d found after their first couple of days together, during breakfasts, he could almost enjoy her company. Lottie was quietest then, only speaking to ask him for the comics in the paper he was reading. 

Severus would hand them over and then, together, they’d read. He’d remark on a headline or two and near the end of their breakfast together, Lottie would show him her favorite comic strip from the day’s selection. Severus didn’t always have to pretend to show amusement when she did either. It was odd, but he thought that was perhaps because her father, _Severus_ , had shaped her sense of humor to be a little like his own. 

It was in those moments he almost thought he liked her.

Of course, she always ruined that notion somehow. Sometimes it would be because she waved at too many Gryffindors in the corridors when they were together, or he realized she smiled more widely when she saw Poppy in the morning than she did him in the afternoon. A few times, Severus thought he absolutely loathed her when Minvera stopped by his office for one reason or another and would remark on some story about Lottie’s Severus to him as if he should know what she was talking about. He never did. Lottie, after their second day together, hadn’t spoken much at all about her family when it was just the two of them. 

Severus had a few ideas about why that was, his strongest one was that talk of them would mean mentioning her mother. He’d not reacted well to Lottie asking for her. He did not know the witch’s history, however, the glimpses he’d caught of her in the girl’s memories told him a great deal. Her mother, Edie, was a dutiful and kind wife and mother. How Lottie’s father had managed to convince her to marry, he didn’t know. If she existed in this world, Severus was certain another, better man had already earned her love and had a family with her right now.

The last thing Edie in this reality could want was to have her life interrupted by him and their daughter from a different world. While Lottie was not a terror, and she seemed to have endeared herself to Poppy, in spite of her moodiness, he knew neither of them was any kind of prize. Finding out they’d somehow made a family would only upset Edie and her family.

So, instead, Severus was doing his best to handle Lottie without her. 

The girl was still crying behind the drapes that separated her temporary bedroom from his lounge. He sighed. Walking across the lounge, he slipped between them and into Lottie’s room. The girl apparently heard him as she turned in her bed to look at him. Her eyes were big and wet. Slowly, Severs continued his approach. When he was beside her bed, he lowered himself to the ground. He blocked out much of his childhood pre-Hogwarts, but he recalled that when he woke from nightmares, he’d hated to have either of his parents come into his room and loom over his bed.

It’d felt like a threat and, often, it was a threat to have them there in his bedroom.

Lottie watched as he drew his knees near his chest and rested first his arms atop his knees and then his chin on his arms. “What do I need to do to make this stop?” asked Severus. “I cannot continue to have us both awake all night because you insist on crying instead of sleeping.”

The girl’s lip trembled, but she did not speak.

Severus held back an irritated sigh and ran a hand through his hair. “It’s your mother you’re crying for, isn’t it?” he asked.

Lottie’s answer was a barely suppressed sob.

He shifted so that it was his forehead on his arms instead of his chin. Staring down at the thin cotton fabric of his brown pajama bottoms, he wracked his brain to find a way to explain to this child why she couldn’t have her mother. “You understand I don’t seek her out for a reason, don’t you?”

There was more silence from the girl, but he expected that.

Severus decided to soldier on. “She… Your memories I saw. She was a good mother to you and your sisters. I’m sure she was a good wife as well. That is… Not necessarily rare, but it is a coveted trait. If she exists, chances are very likely another man has married her. She probably has different children whom she loves and is dedicated to.” 

He lifted his face and stared at the girl. Tears still leaked from her eyes, but she seemed calmer than before. “To interrupt her life, take her from her husband and children, so she will pretend the three of us are a family for a time instead, would be cruel,” he told Lottie.

A mulish set came to her brows, but before she could argue, Severus pushed on. “We are… No, _I_ am not a man any would like to know they wed themselves to in another reality.” 

He swallowed, feeling extremely raw. He was rarely this honest with _himself_. Yet here he was being so with a little girl. A little girl, who, somewhere not so different, he called his _daughter_. It was still almost inconceivable to him. After he pledged himself to Albus, he’d given up on the notion of ever having anything resembling an ordinary life. Usually, he was fine with that. It was not something he wanted when he was young, to be normal, but now, as a man with so many more years of experience, he felt it was a fair penance for what he had done and likely would do in the name of the Dark Lord’s fall.

The girl’s fingers brushed his cheek and Severus pulled back sharply. “Sorry,” she whispered.

He touched the warm spot left by her fingers. “There is no reason to be,” he told her. “I know I am not enough,” he said. “For all we look alike, I am sure your father and I are little alike.”

“But you _are_ ,” she replied in a voice with a surprising amount of fierceness. “You keep being mean to me, to make me not like you, _love_ you, but you’re my dad.” She paused and pursed her lips. “Sadder, maybe,” she said. “You also act strange when I try to hold your hand or pull at your robe to get your attention.” She gave him a rueful smile. “Or when I try to make you feel better,” she added as he internally winced. “When I’m with you, even though you aren’t, I still feel like I’m with Sev.”

Severus wasn’t one to apologize often, especially not to children, but he reached out and cupped her cheek and hoped Lottie knew he was. “Sleep,” he said. “Things will be better in the morning.”

She nods under his fingers and her lashes fluttered. “Okay,” she mumbled. “Night, Severus.”

“Good night,” he whispered in return. A moment later, her jaw fell slack and he knew she was asleep. Removing his hand from her cheek, Severus rose to his feet and returned to his bed.

Unlike Lottie, he did not fall asleep so easily. However, that was to be expected. It never came quickly for him. Less so after all he’d witnessed and participated in.

-o-O-o-

Severus stepped into the healing halls to find the matron at one of the bed’s nearest the door. She was busy re-doing the covers and fluffing the pillows. If he recalled correctly, one of his Slytherins, a third-year named Marcus Flint, had been in it in the morning. The other afternoon he’d had a bad experience with one of Kettleburn’s fire dwelling salamander’s. It seemed since the morning, however, he’d been deemed well enough to return to his usual course.

“Poppy,” he greeted as he came to stand on the side of the bed opposite from her.

“Ah, Severus,” she said, looking up. Letting go of the pillow in her hands, she straightened her back and smiled. “Hello.”

He looked around the witch but did not see Lottie. Frowning, he said, “Where is…?”

She turned herself away and pointed at a bed at the far end of the hall, near her office door. “Just there,” she answered. Poppy knit her brows together and clucked her tongue. “Poor thing was absolutely knackered after helping me organize my potions cabinet.”

Severus felt it probably wasn’t the organizing that did Lottie in but now did not seem like the right moment to bring it up. “That is fortuitous,” he said instead. It was too. He had wanted to talk privately with Poppy. Not having to shoo away Lottie while they did so was a good thing. The girl was quick to grow grudges and would likely spend the evening in a strop if he’d tried to discuss things with Poppy while she was awake. “I was hoping we may speak for a moment,” he explained.

She nodded. “Of course.” Stepping away from the bed, she gestured in the direction of her office door. “Shall we?”

Severus accepted the offer. If Lottie was as tired as he expected, it was unlikely she’d wake while they were talking, but if she did, to have a door between them was a good idea. “Thank you,” he replied.

Poppy took the lead and brought them back to her office. Once he was inside, she shut the door behind them. Instead of going to sit behind her desk, she drew her wand and spelled it back slightly before summoning both of the parson chairs she kept next to her door to be in the cleared out space. Placing them facing each other, she sat down in one and looked up at a still standing Severus. “What is it you wished to discuss?” she asked.

As he sat in the seat across from her, he questioned, “Albus hasn’t spoken to you about the Reality-Shifter as of late, has he?”

She settled herself a little more comfortable in her chair, crossing her ankles and placing her hands in the middle of her lap. It reminded Severus that even though she treated all exactly equal in her halls, she’d been raised in a pureblood home. One not too dissimilar from the one his mother grew up in, or, perhaps more accurately, his grandmother, given her age. “Not since he notified me it had been sent to the Unspeakables at the Ministry last week,” she answered finally. “And you?”

Severus sighed. Hunching his shoulders inward and crossing his arms across his stomach, he said, “No, that’s the last I have heard anything as well.” He gives a bitter shake of his head. “I have asked if he has received any news since, but he says he has not.”

She nodded. Eyes fixed on something past him, she told Severus, “I’ve done a little research since this all started, it doesn’t surprise me.” Her blue eyes dimmed and she explained, “Traveling to a new reality is extremely easy. Going back…” She paused only to sigh. “Ms. Lottie may be older before they can find her reality.”

Severus sat a little straighter in his chair. “How much older?” he demanded. Albus had and was still making it sound as if this would all be corrected in no time at all. If that was not the case, however, he wanted to know sooner rather than later. Arrangements would need to be made for the girl. He’d need new quarters with a proper room for Lottie and he’d need to write to Durmstrang and Beuxbatons to see which would take her (it would do her no good to be a student here, where she was known as a relative of his). 

Poppy eyed him a moment. “If the Unspeakables don’t give up first, I think her family is going to be heartbroken about the years of her life they missed.”

Severus, for a brief moment, was speechless. Lottie could be stuck in their reality for years to come? That was… That couldn’t be allowed. “She needs to go home,” he said, firm and scowling.

The matron gave a small, sad nod. “I don’t disagree with you, Severus.”

“She… She misses her mother,” said Severus, trying to find a way to impress upon the witch in front of him how Lottie’s return to her home was an _imperative_ and not something that could just be pushed to the wayside until it was no longer an objective at all.

“Most little children in her situation would.”

He’d not thought he would admit to their late nights today, but Severus felt compelled to now. “Lottie has cried a great deal since she first came,” he told Poppy. “Last night she was crying in the middle of the night for her mother. She also cried two more times earlier in the week.”

The witch clucked her tongue. “Oh, the poor darling,” she murmured. “That’s quite the case of homesickness.”

“I know,” he said, annoyed.

Poppy’s lips pursed. Then, carefully, she questioned, “Severus, have you thought of trying to find her mother?”

Severus shifted his gaze to the corner of the room where Poppy kept a pot of dittany growing. In spite of not being faced towards the window, it grew well. He had to wonder if she didn’t cast a spell on it to mimic the rays now and again. Thinking about spells was much easier than trying to explain why he was afraid to seek the girl’s mother out. If she existed here, like he did, the life she was leading had to be far better than the one he’d given her in Lottie’s reality.

“Severus?” prompted the matron, voice concerned.

Severus sighed. “I am sure this Edie has another family, another husband,” he explained. Meeting the witch’s gaze, he told her, “She is not going to leave them for us, a man she doesn’t know, and a child who is only hers by blood.”

“Of course she wouldn’t leave them!” Poppy grumbled, gray brows knitting together. “I’m just suggesting, perhaps, a visit could be arranged,” she continued. Smoothing a hand down her skirt, she turned her eyes to her knees and said, softer, “Or, depending on how long this continues… A fostering.” Looking him straight in the eye, she said to Severus, “That may take some of the girl’s heartache away.”

Severus’s stared back, fingers clenching into his robe. Three weeks ago, he would have been glad to send the girl away, to her mother. Now, he could not fathom the idea. He didn’t think Lottie would take to it either. This was not her Hogwarts, but it was till her home. “This is her home,” he spat at the woman.

Poppy, undeterred by his tone, pushed. “She would come back, she’s eight,” she said. “In a couple of years, she would be a student, perhaps in your hou—”

“No,” he growled, cutting off the rest of her spiel.

Lips parted, Poppy stared at Severus with an odd look for a too-long moment. Finally, she leaned back in her seat and placed her hands back in the middle of her lap. “As you wish,” she said.

“A visit may be… agreeable,” he said in way of apology for his tone a minute later. Then, trying to hide his hesitancy, he asked, “Has Lottie spoken much of her mother to you?”

“She speaks endlessly of her, and you, and the rest of her family,” answered Poppy with warm, shining eyes.

He shifted, uncomfortable. He had a feeling not everything she had to say about him was flattering. Especially after how he’d treated her the last couple of weeks. Trying to change the topic, he asked, with some true annoyance, “Flying too, or is that a topic she saves for me alone?”

“No, she has been begging quite hard to take a fly around the school,” admitted the matron with a chuckled into her hand. “I keep telling her to have you arrange a visit with Rolanda, but I suppose she hasn’t brought it up?”

He shook his head. Lottie had not. She hadn’t asked for a great deal since her first couple of days with him. Nothing much larger than to have shepherd’s pie for dinner or the comics from his paper. “No, but I will look into it,” he replied. He and Rolanda got on well enough, asking her the small favor of letting him and Lottie borrow one of her practice brooms for a flight around the school one Saturday would not be too difficult to accomplish.

“Good.”

Severus cleared his throat, recalling that there were more important things to learn about Lottie, about her family. “What has she said of her mother?”

“Ah, Edie,” said Poppy. Eyes turned toward the ceiling she began by telling Severus, “It sounds to me she has a rather distinct face. Lottie has described her as looking quite a lot like her, but with hazel eyes, an oval-shaped face, and a large burn scar covering the lower half of the right side of her face.”

“A scar?” replied Severus, blinking. He hadn’t seen one on her face in the few memories of Lottie he’d gone through.

Poppy frowned. “You looked at her memories, haven’t you?” she asked.

He nodded, though it was with some reluctance. Severus had never thought himself an unobservant man, but… “I never saw a scar.”

“Hm,” she replied, lips pursing. “Interesting. Perhaps you just missed it.”

“I… I focused on the girls in the memories,” he admitted after a belated beat. Maybe he’d intentionally not looked too closely at his wife. It was hard. It was undeniably pathetic, but even now he loved Lily who had given up on him when they were teenagers and went and married one of his greatest enemies. Much of the time, he felt that would always be the case. It could be he subconsciously feared to look at his wife, to make it real, that he would never have had a chance with Lily. Not even in a world so different, yet similar to his own. 

“They are your daughters,” said the matron, tone lifting with amusement and shaking him from his brood.

He glared at her. “Nevermind that now,” he huffed. “What else can you tell me?”

Poppy rolled her eyes at his snappishness. Slowly, as if in the midst of a recollection, she said, “You met her while you and your sister lived Knockturn Alley. You hired her as your sister’s nanny and then fell in love while raising her.”

“I do not believe it was that simple,” he said after a moment to absorb the information. 

“No, I agree,” replied Poppy with a sigh. Her eyes flickered to the closed door. “She is just a little girl, however. I don’t imagine you gave many sordid details.”

Severus knew Poppy had a point. Her father, who was him, probably would have felt rather uncomfortable saying too much to her. Just thinking about some of his past leaves him uneasy. Talking about it… It would take a lot to make him willingly bring up the worst parts. “No,” he agreed.

Poppy’s eyes focused on Severus once again and she told him, “There is a little more she said.”

“Oh?” he prompted, leaning in slightly.

“Yes,” answered Poppy, nodding her head. “She says your parents died when you were nineteen and Darla short of three.”

Severus knit his brows and absorbed the new information. “Hm,” he murmured. It was interesting to learn that. Here, in the reality he was a part of, his father also died when he was nineteen. He said as much to Poppy. “That is when my father died, but my mother… It was years before.”

“Yes, interestingly, they both perished in a fire,” she added. Head tilted slightly, she remarked, “If I recall, you mentioned that is how your father died. It’s curious how things overlap but are different.”

“Indeed,” he agreed. It was a curious overlap. It made him wonder if the same could have happened here if his mother hadn’t fallen down the stairs of his family’s home on Spinner’s End when he was fifteen.

“It also came up, before Edie was your sister’s nanny, she had just recently left her aunt and uncle’s,” Poppy continued in a tone that was distinctly angry. “It seems the uncle was responsible for her scar and that is why Lottie doesn’t know her mother’s family.” 

“Do you know how old her mother was when Lottie and her sister were born?” Severus asked. The start of a theory for how his and Edie’s paths crossed was beginning to make itself known to him, but he needed to know more before he could be sure if he was on the right path.

I don’t—” started Poppy only to stop and give a short shake of her head. “No, she did say,” she said. “Edie was eighteen.”

Severus knew Lottie had only traveled realities, not time as well. “She is eight now,” he said, “that means her mother is twenty-six.” He felt a little uncomfortable as he told Poppy, “She had to be sixteen when we met.” 

“If her mother wasn’t lying about her age,” said Poppy. “There are many vain women who would fudge their age to their children.”

“Such a woman would never marry or have my children,” said Severus, giving the woman a facsimile of a smile.

Poppy pursed her lips but did not refute his argument. “I’ve gone through my records from the last two decades,” she said instead. “There hasn’t been an Edie fitting Lottie’s description. Especially not from ten years ago.”

He dipped his chin. “She wasn’t a student and we met in Knockturn,” he summarized. That cinched Severus’s theory when it came to Lottie’s mother. She had not been a woman of good standing.

Poppy frowned and looked away, a sad light to her eyes. “I dare say the girl probably wasn’t in a good spot when you two became acquainted.” 

“No,” he agreed. In fact, he was suspecting she’d been in quite an awful spot. It was why she agreed to nanny the sister of an apothecary clerk and part-time brewer.

“She could have been a barmaid at one of the taverns,” suggested Poppy in a delicate way. 

Severus huffed. He didn’t need her to _lie_. Edie had been no such thing. There was absolutely no chance of it. “If Lottie’s father, me, was like I was at that age, he was working at Mulpepper’s Apothecary and he wouldn’t have had the money to afford a proper nanny.” Poppy winced at his hard declaration. Forging on, Severus continued, “She would have been paid next to nothing. Being a barmaid would have still been more attractive a profession than a nanny to toddler.”

Poppy began to fidget with her hands. She was refusing to look at Severus and he knew she was extremely uncomfortable with the path this conversation was going. “Surely you wouldn’t have hired some homeless girl off the street?” she murmured. They both knew Edie had been no such thing. She had been a prostitute. Yet if Poppy wanted to act obtuse, Severus would let her. It was of little importance in finalizing his theory into truth.

“If I was desperate enough,” he admitted.

Her lips started to quiver. “Oh, Severus,” she whispered in a way that rose his hackles and made him grit his teeth. Severus did not want nor need pity. He’d learned very early to do what must be done to survive. Severus, Lottie’s father, must have loved his little sister. For them to survive, he had to of believed that taking in a whore to watch the toddler was the only way for the two to have a bat’s chance in Hell in making it.

Standing up, Severus started to pace. “No, do not pity me,” he told Poppy. Severus paused a beat and corrected himself, “Him.” Continuing his pacing, he explained to the matron, “I would have been _nineteen_. Living in a shoddy two-room flat with a toilet down the hall. My parents died in a fire. That’s sudden. I imagine whatever saving I had would have had to go to buying my sister clothing and other necessities.”

His thoughts turned to his old boss from the short time he worked at the apothecary. Severus recalled actually liking the man. Mr. Mulpepper had always been friendly with him as well, even when Severus was in a less than pleasant mood. “Mr. Mulpepper was a good boss,” he told Poppy. Yet even a good boss would only do so much for a young man suddenly saddled with a child. His business was his main concern, not his employees. 

“But he wouldn’t have let me take my sister with me to work. He probably wouldn’t have given me a lot of time to find someone to look after her either. As fair as he is, he still would have had a business to run and if I couldn’t be there, he’d need someone who could. Not to mention my—” he stopped there, realizing he was going to say more than he should. A glance at Poppy told Severus she was waiting for him to continue. He did.“My other commitments,” he continued, veiling what else he’d been doing during those days when the war was in full swing.

“A girl from the streets probably seemed like a perfect short-term solution until I could come up with a better way to keep my sister and job,” he explained to Poppy. “It simply turned out that Edie was possibly a better nanny than I expected and we became… involved,” he finished. That was his theory. That was what happened. It felt entirely feasible and his gut told him it was the correct series of events.

Poppy stared at him, quiet, assessing. He thought, for a moment, she was trying to find a way to refute the scenario he’d laid out, but she surprised him when she asked, “Do you think she is there now? In Knockturn?”

Severus blinked. Then, frowning, he said, “A non-Hogwarts educated girl with little prospects who ran away from her family? If she exists and hasn’t ended up murdered by one of Knockturn’s less savory inhabitants, yes, I do.”

“The poor thing,” clucked the witch.

Severus didn’t disagree. He also realized now that there was nothing to fear about Edie. She had no family. No husband to compare him to. In fact, her life was probably more terrible than his own was. If anything, she would be in wonder to find out she’d made it out of Knockturn in another reality. 

If she existed. If she was still alive. If she hadn’t tied herself to the drink or any other illicit substances.

He would find out. Perhaps knowing her mother existed would sooth Lottie. Maybe he could arrange a visit if this Edie was a fraction of the woman who was Lottie’s mother. Possibly Severus could set up a more regular meeting between the two until Lottie was able to go home.

“I will find her,” he said.

Poppy’s eyes fluttered wide. “You will?” 

“She may not be a woman I can bring to meet Lottie, but I will at least try to make it possible,” he explained. “I think it would perhaps bring an end to her night crying.”

“It could,” agreed the matron. She twisted her fingers a moment before she told Severus, “Even if she isn’t now when you find her, that doesn’t mean that may always be true. She might just need a hand up and some care and then she’ll be quite a lot like Lottie’s mother.”

Severus didn’t know if that was true. If it were he wanted to invest so much in the woman. He didn’t tell Poppy that, however. “Maybe,” he said instead.

“If she wants help, let me know,” the matron insisted as if she knew Severus was not half as committed to helping Edie rise from her circumstances as she was. “I have mates who may be willing to do things like offer her a job outside of prostitution and maybe a room in a place away from Knockturn Alley.”

He sighed. “If you wish,” he said.

Poppy got up and came to stand beside him. Taking his hands in her own (and ignoring the way he flinched at her initial touch) she met his black gaze and said, “I do, Severus.”

“Very well,” he agreed as he extracted his hands from her grip. Turning toward the door, he said, “I should wake Lottie and take her back to our quarters for dinner. I will need to get a proper memory from her head of her mother tonight as well so I can have a picture drawn up to show witches and wizards in Knockturn.”

“I understand,” said Poppy. Then, with a little more hesitancy, she said, “Be careful, won’t you? Lottie may want her mother, but if anything were to happen to you…”

He nodded. “I know.” If anything happened to him, Lottie would be inconsolable for a long time to come.

Taking his leave from the office, he walked over to the bed where the little girl was still fast asleep. Reaching down, Severus gave her shoulder a shake. “Wake,” he commanded. “It’s time we return to our quarters to eat.”

Lottie’s eyes parted slightly and she looked up at him. “Sev,” she mumbled before yawning.

“Get up,” he said, feeling both impatient and amused by the girl’s slow reaction.

She sat up, however, instead of getting out of the bed, she tilted her head back and stared up at Severus with large, pleading eyes. “I’m still tired,” she complained. “Will you carry me back? The dungeons are so _far_.”

He knew she was manipulating him. Lottie had perfectly serviceable feet and she had to have been sleeping for the better part of at least an hour if not longer. She could not be so terribly tired that a ten-minute walk would be difficult. Yet…

Severus knelt down. “Put your arms around my neck,” he said.

Lottie grinned broadly, showing every single tooth in her mouth. “Thank you!” she exclaimed.

He grunted and held still as her skinny arms hooked themselves around his neck. Then, he placed an arm beneath her knees and wrapped the other around her middle. Lifting her, he shifted her body a little until she was a not too uncomfortable weight in his arms. “Will this suffice?” he asked the girl.

Lottie nodded against his shoulder and he could smell more distinctly the powdery scent of the shampoo he bought her. “Uh-huh.”

As he headed for the infirmary doors, he told Lottie, “I am only doing this because you had a very late night. Is that understood?”

“Yes,” she said into his neck.

In the corridors, on his way back to their rooms, students gawped and whispered. Severus paid them no mind and neither did Lottie. What they thought now was not important. What was important was making sure Lottie would be in an agreeable mood when he asked to take a memory of her mother from her head. Having her consent would make everything much easier and he would not hear later from Poppy and others about rifling through a little girl’s head.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading and please let me know your thoughts with a comment and/or kudo :)


	5. Soaring Above it All

Lottie stared at Severus, the spoonful of kidney bean curry she was about to eat hovering in the air over her lap. She scrunched up her nose at the man, who raised an eyebrow in return. “You want a memory of Edie?” she asked before she shoved her spoon into her mouth. 

As she chewed, Severus, whose own plate of dinner was barely touched, nodded his head. “I want it to show a colleague so she may draw you a portrait,” he explained. 

Lottie searched his face and found no reason to believe he was lying. He didn’t like talking about her mum. She was starting to believe it was because he felt guilty. He could give her lots of things, but, so far, (possibly never) not Edie. In an attempt to test see how far this new affability towards her family went, she swallowed he finely chewed curry and asked, “Can I have portraits of my sisters and Darla too?”

The corners of his mouth quirked downward and Lottie almost sighed. “Perhaps later,” he said and she knew he meant probably not.

While Lottie was excited at the thought of having a picture of her mum to look at when she was sad and missed her, she still didn’t understand why Severus was doing this for her. Narrowing her eyes, she questioned, “Why am I getting a picture of Edie?”

Her not-dad almost rolled his eyes but seemed to think better of it in the last second. “To help with your homesickness,” he answered.

Lottie smiled, though, she felt a little bad too. She knew he was probably only offering because she kept crying at night when there was nothing to distract her from how much she missed  _ her  _ Hogwarts, family, and friends. “Okay,” she said, “we can do that.”

“Brilliant,” said Severus. Getting up, Severus took his napkin from his lap and draped it over his food. Standing, he went to one of his cupboards on the wall behind him and opened the door. Bring out his wand, he levitated out from the bottom shelf a large basin. He then closed the door and levitated a small column from a shelf next to the cupboard. 

Her not-dad then murmured a spell and the column tripled in size until it was waist-height with Severus. Lottie watched him then levitate the basin onto the top of the column. Seemingly satisfied, he turned away from it and gestured for Lottie to come to him.

Lottie took her own napkin off her lap, but instead of putting it over her dinner, set it to the side. Getting up, she approached Severus and stopped a half-foot from him. Staring up at her not-dad, she waited for further instruction.

Instead of staying at his looming height, Severus took a knee and said in a quiet voice, “I need you to close your eyes.”

Lottie did so.

He made a not quite snickering sound. “Not so tight,” he murmured.

Lottie relaxed her eyes.

Severus placed a hand on her shoulder and commanded, “Think of a very clear memory of your mother’s face for me.”

Lottie filtered through a few different memories before settling on one from the day before she ended up in this Hogwarts. Edie had been laughing at a story Sev was telling her over tea. She liked it when her mum laughed. It made her cheeks pink and crinkled the corners of her eyes in a way that Lottie thought was pretty. Mind’s eye fixed on the moment, she told Severus, “Okay, I am.”

“I am going to take it from your head with my wand and place it in the bowl,” he explained and Lottie nodded. A moment later, Severus mumbled an incantation and she felt the memory of her mother’s face sort of slide away from her and, then, it snapped back as if it’d never gone at all. She wanted very much to blink and ask Severus why that had happened, but she didn’t. Instead, she kept still and her eyes shut. Severus would no doubt become cross if she did anything right now he hadn’t instructed her to. 

Thankfully, her not-dad didn’t make her hold still much longer. He said as Lottie was starting to debate if she  _ really  _ cared if he was cross with her, “You may open your eyes now.

Lottie popped them open and noticed over the rim of the basin something white and silvery moving around inside. “Would you like to look closer?” asked Severus.

She nodded and was slightly surprised when picked her up and placed her on his hip. She didn’t think long on it, however, as Lottie had more pressing curiosities to quell. Leaning her head over the basin, she stared into it. Lottie knew it was her memory of Edie’s laughing face, but she was utterly awed by how pretty a memory outside of one’s head could look. It was light and sort of shiny and silver-white. She wanted to touch it and see what it felt like. “Oh, wow,” she said.

Severus didn’t hide his amusement this time and chuckled clearly in her ear. “It is fascinating, isn’t it?” he asked.

“Yeah,” she agreed. “How is the person who’s going to draw her face see it, though? The memory is just a pretty liquid.”

“They will place their face in the bowl and be emersed in your memory and, from there, be able to draw an accurate depiction,” he explained.

“That’s wicked,” Lottie gushed.

Severus nodded his head. “It is a very ingenious thing, the Pensieve.”

Lottie agreed whole-heartedly. “When will I get my picture?” she asked her not-dad, turning her face to look at his.

He glanced away, lips pursed slightly. “Tomorrow,” he answered. “You may know, but Professor Sinistra has a bit of an artistic eye and I plan to request her to draw you a sketch we can frame and place on your bedside table.”

Lottie did know. At her Hogwarts, she’d spied Professor Sinistra on numerous occasions drawing and painting on Hogwarts’s grounds. She’d never been too interested beyond looking at the picture she was creating and seeing how it compared to what she was trying to emulate. Usually, her pictures were very accurate. Eileen was much more interested in the astronomy professor’s hobby and would often remain long after Lottie (and sometimes Essie) wandered off, asking questions and, occasionally, joining the professor in drawing the scene.

“Thank you,” Lottie said, wrapping her arms quickly around her not-dad’s neck. He went taut for a half-second, but quickly relaxed and placed a warm, almost kind hand on her back. Severus then placed her back down on the ground. Drawing a vial from his pocket, he waved his wand over the Pensieve and moved her memory into the vial. She watched him shrink the Pensieve basin and column down until they were the sizes of a pocket watch and pencil and put them and the vial in a pocket in his robe.

“I will speak to Aurora tomorrow,” he said to her. “I believe she has a class of seventh years this evening.”

Lottie bobbed her head and smiled. She was actually becoming quite excited. In another day or two, she’d have a picture of Edie to say goodnight and morning too. She could probably talk to her portrait whenever else she felt the urge as well. As she continued to daydream about the picture she’d soon have, Severus cleared his throat. She looked up.

He was staring down his nose at her, but there was a glint to his eyes that Lottie knew from her Sev. She almost gaped. Severus was feeling  _ playful.  _ To not ruin the moment, she feigned ignorance.

“What?” she asked, cocking her head to the side.

“I spoke with Madam Pomfrey this afternoon while you slept,” he said.

She frowned, confused. Why was he telling—  _ Oh _ . Poppy must have mentioned her begging to go flying. She went pink. She’d been hoping that if she whinged enough the matron would eventually agree because Lottie had been  _ certain  _ Severus would never. It seemed she had been wrong, though, if he was teasing her.

“About your students?” she asked like she didn’t know the two had been talking about her.

Her not-dad seemed perfectly aware that she was lying, but instead of getting cross, he snorted. “No, it was you we discussed actually,” he said.

“Oh,” mumbled Lottie. “What she say?”

He smirked at her. “Poppy wished to inform me how badly you wish to take a ride around the castle.”

Lottie looked to her toes and began to scuff the tip of her shoe against the stone floor. “I don’t need to,” she mumbled. “I just thought if she had time we could.”

Now knelt in front of her, Severus grabbed her chin and forced Lottie to meet his gaze. There was nothing playful about his gaze as he said, voice earnest, “ _ I  _ can arrange for us to take a flight on one of Rolanda’s training brooms.”

She searched his features, looking for some kind of reluctance. She knew he wasn’t lying, but if he didn’t  _ want  _ to go flying, it would be unkind to make him. Lottie found none, but asked all the same, “Really?”

He nodded, smirk now nearly a smile. “Yes, a half an hour flight around the quidditch pitch will not be too inconvenient,” he said.

Lottie, feeling fully assured now that it was something Severus  _ wanted  _ to do with her, flung herself at him and hugged him tightly. 

This time, he did not tense.

“Thank you!” she gushed into his ear. “Oh, I can’t wait to go flying together! It’s my most favorite thing to do  _ ever _ .”

“You don’t say,” he replied, wry, as he pulled her off him. Getting back to his feet, he looked to his quarter’s entry and said, “I have a patrol to begin soon.” He put a hand to his chin and looked at her out of the corner of his eye. “Can I trust you to behave here without a minder or myself?”

She nodded and smiled. “I’ll be good,” she swore.

He smirked. “I thought you’d say that.” He reached down and patted her head. “I’ll be back soon. If you need anything, call for a house-elf.”

“Okay,” she agreed. Lottie then watched Severus leave her and the quarters. Once she was certain he wasn’t going to come back any time soon, she turned her attention to Severus’s many shelves and cupboards and debated which she would explore today.

-o-O-o-

Severus led her into the Hogwarts library. She frowned and looked up at the back of his head. She thought they’d been heading for the Quidditch pitch. “What’re we doing?” she asked. 

Instead of answering, he brought her to a slightly secluded table behind a large bookcase full of history texts on ancient Greece and their magical theories (or said the label scrawled on the edge of the shelf). Drawing his wand, he pulled out a chair for her. “Stay right here,” said Severus. “I need to speak with Madam Pince.”

Reluctantly, Lottie parked her bum in the smooth seat of the heavy oak wood chair. “Okay, why?” she asked.

“Why what?” he returned a furrow between his brows and a frown just shy of annoyed on his lips.

Lottie puffed out her cheeks and kicked her heels against the legs of her chair. “Why’re you talkin’ to her?” she asked.

He pinched the bridge of his nose.“Talk _ ing _ ,” he corrected in a way her dad almost never did. “I need to speak with her today as it seems a pair of my fifth years were caught in the restricted section without permission,” he explained, crossing his arms while a tired sag came to his shoulders. “That is a very bad thing to do,” he warned her with a piercing glare.

Lottie just barely contained herself from sticking out her tongue (Severus would no doubt use some little jinx to make it stick that way). “I know,” she grumbled instead as she turned her face away from him. Around the corner of a bookshelf belonging to a long row of shelves, she saw a pair of young Hufflepuffs watching. One was a boy and the other a girl. She squinted her eyes at them. Lottie thought she  _ maybe  _ recognized the girl. She saw her around Stephen a lot, didn’t she?

“I am just reinforcing that fact,” bit back Severus, snapping her attention back to her not-dad. His expression became more irked as he explained, “She foisted their punishment off on me, but I am unsure how severe it needs to be as I do not know what book they were trying to take.”

Lottie couldn’t know for sure, but given the stories Darla told her about her housemates… “Probably something to do with curses or hexes,” she said, smiling at him in an attempt to improve his rapidly souring mood.

“Do you think so?” he replied, a thoughtfulness to his tone that told her he was truly considering her words.

She nodded her head and explained, “Darla tells me sometimes about her housemates. One was bragging last year about how her brother let her look in a book he knicked for their dad.”

Severus’s expression returned to the irked set it’d been in previously. “I see,” he said with a thunderous, threatening glint to his gaze.

Lottie had a feeling if some students had tried to do the same here in this reality they were going to be in  _ monumental  _ trouble. In an attempt to get her not-dad’s shy of murderous look away from her, she said, “I’ll behave.”

This appeared to amuse him as he snorted. “Good,” he said before turning on his heel, walking away from her.

Lottie started to count the seconds in her head. She reached one hundred and nineteen before the Hufflepuffs she noticed before we’re in front of her. One was a brunette girl with an unfortunately long forehead (she really should consider a fringe). She looked slightly older than the pretty boy beside her. He was also a brunet. However, the boy’s hair was just a shade or two away from black where the girl’s hair was a straight brown that could never be mistaken for anything else. 

“Hi!” She greeted the pair with an accompanying bright smile.

Instead of replying, they shared a glance. 

“You don’t have to be like that,” she told them, keeping her smile wide and encouraging like the one her mum wore when she was teaching Calliope to walk as a baby. “I don’t bite,” she teased. “I’d be happy to answer all the questions I just know you have too.”

“…Really?” said the girl, blinking her actually rather fascinating tortoise brown-colored eyes at her.

“Oh yes,” agreed Lottie with a little laugh.

The girl shoved her elbow into the boy’s ribs. In an aggressive tone, she hissed, “Ask something, Cedric.”

‘I know who you are,’ thought Lottie as the girl’s tone shook loose a memory. She hung around Stephen sometimes according to her aunt. One time, she and Eileen were playing with Darla and she took them to go see Stephen and the girl had been there. The girl had seemed quite cross with all of their presences, but especially Darla. The way she talked to Cedric now was how she spoke to Darla then. She was Tamsin Applebee. Lottie made sure not to let her distaste show and instead switched her attention back to the boy.

He, Cedric, seemed utterly baffled by the command. “What?” he said, stepping away from the girl and out of her elbow’s range.

Tamsin Applebee rolled her eyes. “Come on, I know you were curious,” she chided with hands on her hip like a mum.

Cedric’s bafflement continued. “What are you—”

“ _ Ask _ ,” snapped Tamsin, slightly crooked teeth bared.

Cedric’s mouth shut with a distinctive click. For a beat, he just stared at the girl and Lottie didn’t think he would question her. Finally, he sighed and said, “Fine.” Crossing his arms over his chest, his stare took on something between sulky and demanding. “You better stop writing to my dad all of the time to complain about how I don’t treat you like  _ family _ . We’re at Hogwarts now. This isn’t Aunt Branwen’s. I don’t have to spend all my time with you.”

Tamsin rolled her eyes and made a breathy noise between a scoff and a sigh. “Yes, all right,” she agreed. Smiling again, she shuffled closer and put an arm around his shoulders. “Now, come on, Cedric!” she encouraged him. “Snape will be back any moment I bet.”

The boy nodded and turned his gaze onto Lottie. Now that he wasn’t being harassed by Tamsin, Cedric seemed like he was probably a person who smiled a lot more than he frowned. “How are you and Professor Snape related exactly?” he questioned. “He said you’re relative,” he explained to Lottie. “But does that mean you are by blood or marriage?”

Lottie froze. She’d thought they’d ask her other questions, like what she called Severus, or if he wore slippers around his quarters. Silly stuff, but stuff students would be curious about all of the same. They were the kinds of questions students back at her Hogwarts asked when the opportunities to talk with her or her siblings arose.

She glanced away from the Hufflepuffs. Lottie didn’t think Severus would appreciate her telling the truth. Nor were the pair going to believe Lottie. Magic could do just about everything, but this was some very rare magic she’d experienced and she doubted some first or second years knew anything about Reality-Shifters. The professors besides Dumbledore sure hadn’t. Swinging her feet, she answered, “Erh, well, it’s a little messy…”

“It is,” said Tamsin, arms crossed and doubt clear in her tone.

She didn’t let it deter her. Maybe she could do that funny thing of talking in riddles like the headmaster did. “He’s family, but he’s not  _ my  _ family, you know?”

Tamsin and Cedric shared a look. “…Marriage then?” said Cedric after a beat.

Lottie shook her head. “No,” she replied. Lottie looked to the ceiling and thought hard. Finally, stumbling over her words, she answered, “I guess, well, hm. He’s related to my dad, but  _ not  _ to me.”

Tamsin leaned in close to Cedric and whispered in his ear, though Lottie still heard her (possibly because the girl wanted her to), “I don’t think she knows what by marriage is.”

“I do too!” she snapped at the pair.

The older girl rolled her eyes and snarked, “Sure you do.”

Losing her temper, Lottie forgot to watch her words and said, “It’s no wonder Darla thinks you’re a pest.”

“What?” Tamsin sputtered, startled by both Lottie’s contemptuous tone and her words themselves. “I don’t even know a Darla!”

In an attempt to fix her mistake, Lottie looked away from the pair and tried to deflect their attention away from what she just said. “Why are you following around Cedric anyway?” she demanded. “I thought you fancied Stephen.” That’s what Darla had said to her after she and Eileen met Tamsin that one time, anyway.

Instead of embarrassing the girl into deflecting like she’d hoped and getting the attention off of her, Tamsin only seemed more confused and maybe a little affronted. “ _ Stephen _ ?” she echoed. “Stephen  _ who _ ?”

Lottie stared at her for a long moment, trying to figure out if she was just playing stupid (maybe for Cedric’s sake). However, that didn’t seem to be it at all. Finally, she whispered, “…Bones.”

Cedric piped up then. There was an uneasy set to his eyes even as he said in a sympathetic tone, “There’s no Bones at Hogwarts.”

Lottie felt like she’d gotten hit with a knockback jinx. No Bones at Hogwarts? Were there  _ any  _ Bones at all? Lottie had just thought it was  _ her  _ family that was wrong. The Bones were too? Somehow, she felt even more awful than she had when she found out there was no Darla, no Edie, or her sisters. She’d thought things couldn’t be any worse, but they were.

“I-I need to go find Severus,” she stammered. Jumping up from her chair, she darted around the two and started to run in the direction of her not-dad.

“Wait!” yelled Cedric. “We’re sorry!”

Lottie ignored his call and continued searching for Severus. A minute or so later, she collided with his front. “Sev,” she mumbled with relief, wrapping her arms around his middle and squeezing him tight.

Unlike the first time she hugged him, Severus did not turn rigid or act as if she was covered in potion goo. Instead, he stayed warm and soft and placed a hand on the top of her head. “Lottie?” he asked.

“Sorry,” she mumbled into his robes.

His hand moved down her head in a soothing manner and found a new home on one of her shoulders. After a moment, Severus tugged at her until she came away from his middle. His expression was stern, but his eyes held concern. Lottie’s lip began to shake as he said, “I told you to stay at the table.”

“I missed you,” she warbled.

He frowned and crouched down. “That is a lie,” he told her.

Lottie wildly shook her head and she didn’t even feel bad when she felt one of her plaits connect with Severus’s cheek. “No, it’s not.”

He sighed. “What happened,” he asked.

Lottie stubbornly kept her mouth shut and glared at the man. In return, he gazed back steadily, a set to his jaw that told Lottie he’d decided to take her refusal as a challenge and would make them remain here until she spoke. For a few seconds, she thought she could out stubborn Severus. Then, after a full minute of staring at each other, she realized that wasn’t going to be possible.

Edie always told Lottie while she was a brick wall, Severus was  _ two  _ brick walls reinforced with the strongest shielding charm known to wizardkind.

So, instead of fighting him any longer, Lottie conceded. But only a little. “Nothing,” she huffed.

“Lottie—”

“I swear,” Lottie cut in over Severus. She knew he was going to try and insist she tell him the truth, but she couldn’t. She didn’t want to talk about Stephen or the Bones or get Cedric and Tamsin on Severus’s bad side for unintentionally upsetting Lottie. “It was nothing,” she persisted, scowling at her not-dad in warning. “Nobody meant anything bad.”

For a moment, he just looked at her. Then, almost cautiously, he remarked, “You are obviously upset.”

“I’m okay,” Lottie said. Then, realizing how obvious her lie was, corrected, “It will be okay.” She forced a smile. Lottie felt bad now, but once they were finally up in the air and flying around on a broom, she knew she’d feel better. Lottie always did. “We’re going flying!” she reminded him. “I’m always happy then.”

Severus relented and Lottie relaxed further. It seemed her non-answers had been enough. Getting to his feet, he offered a hand to Lottie, which she gladly took (even if she thought he was only giving it to her because he was pitying her). “Yes, we are,” he agreed. “Madam Hooch said we could even use her broom instead of a student one.”

Lottie squealed at that. Madam Hooch had the  _ best  _ racing broom!

-o-O-o-

Feeling the best she had in days, Lottie bounced up and down as she watched Madam Hooch hand over her broom to Severus. The spritely flying instructor gave her a smirk and wink. “Here you are, Snape,” she said.

“Thank you,” he replied as he wrapped his other hand around the broom’s handle.

Lottie nodded her head along and echoed her not-dad’s sentiment with much more energy. “Yes, thank you Madam Hooch!”

The old witch laughed and gave Lottie’s hair a tousle, which, thankfully, didn’t ruin the bunch she’d pulled her hair up into in preparation for today’s flight. “Ah, it’s no trouble, ducky,” she assured. Her sharp, yellow eyes took on a teasing quality as she raised them up to meet Severus’s bored gaze. “I’m actually very interested to see if Snape here has improved at flying since he was a student.”

In a similar manner to how he had when Professor McGonagall remarked on transfiguration had not been his best subject in school, her not-dad bristled. In an attempt to keep a row from beginning between the two professors, Lottie put her hands on her hips and defended him. “Severus is a good flyer,” she said. Or at least she assumed so. Her Sev had taken her on plenty of rides on his broom before Edie and him finally relented and bought her a broom of her own last year.

Madam Hooch nodded, small mouth still fixed in a smirk. “Good flyer, yes,” she agreed. Laughing, she added, “though, I can’t say he ever had a talent for much beyond that.”

Lottie felt her indignation falter as Severus scoffed. “What does that mean?” she asked with some suspicion, but mostly curiosity. Madam Hooch  _ could  _ be insulting her not-dad, but it wasn’t like the witch to do it in the sneaky way she often saw Sev or even Darla do.

The flying teacher didn’t get a chance to answer as Severus had taken over the conversation and growled, “You can keep your opinions to yourself, Hooch. Tricks are utterly useless beyond being a show-off.”

Lottie blinked and looked first from her glowering not-dad to the slightly smug-looking Madam Hooch. “What?” she cried, dismayed. “We’re not going to do any flips or barrel rolls? What about zig-zags?” she reached up and tugged on the dark gray sleeve of the flying robe Severus was wearing. “We  _ have  _ to!” begged Lottie with the biggest, most pathetic eyes she could manage. “That’s the best part of flying!”

He ignored her and instead narrowed his eyes even more at the witch. “I’m sure the Hooch she knows in her reality is to blame for this behavior,” he grumbled.

Instead of being offended by what is clearly an accusation, the old witch threw back her head and laughed boyishly. “If you say so, Snape,” she said when she was done, grinning broadly with sparkling eyes.

Severus started to bare his teeth and Lottie decided it was her turn to jump in again. “Well, only a little,” she assured both of them as she thought back to her first flying lessons on her new broom. Sev and Edie had decided to put the teaching of her in the hands of Darla with some guidance from Sev. Edie didn’t know how to fly. While Sev knew how to, much like Severus, he also was not a very big fan of it, unlike Darla.

Her aunt had been very enthusiastic about teaching her, but… “Darla’s not a very good teacher,” she told both of them. The witch looked slightly confused, but Severus didn’t and he was looking at her. That’s what mattered. He was listening to her and not being cross with Madam Hooch. “My Madam Hooch got on her broom and chased us down to the lawn after she saw my aunt teaching me when I got my broom last year,” she continued. Looking at the flying instructor who didn’t look perplexed at all anymore, Lottie said, “She said Darla was being irresponsible and  _ she’d  _ show me how to do all of the really cool tricks the students during Quidditch games and stuff can do.”

The witch chuckled and, teased Severus once again, much to Lottie’s annoyance. “It sounds like you should thank me, Snape,” she said. “Another me is why another you still has a daughter.”

Severus rolled his eyes and Lottie relaxed. That was good. It meant her words hadn’t vexed him too badly. “Hmph,” he muttered.

“Come on, please can we fly now?” Lottie begged, tugging once again on Severus’s sleeve.

“Are you sure you want to?” asked Severus. His tone was distinctly bitter as he told Lottie, “It’s become rather apparent I don’t know any of these tricks you are so fond of well enough.”

Lottie huffed and stomped a foot. While of course flying would be better with tricks, that didn’t mean she  _ needed  _ them! She looked up at the brilliant blue sky. It was a perfect day for flying — even with the mild breeze whispering over her ears every now and again. “Yes!” she said. “I decided I don’t mind as soon as you said,” she told Severus. Softer, she admitted, “I miss being in the air.”

Looking at her with a surprisingly shrewd stare, Madam Hooch said to Lottie’s not-dad. “She’s going to be a quidditch player, Snape.”

He pressed his lips into a thin, displeased line. Lottie wasn’t sure why. Being a Quidditch player was a perfectly good job. In fact, the witch was right. That  _ was  _ what Lottie planned to be when she grew up. “We shall see,” he said. Then, lowering the broom, he straddled. Looking at her next, he ordered, “Come here, Lottie.”

“Okay!” she agreed, scrambling to get over the broom’s hilt herself to sit in front of her not-dad. Once seated, she smiled at the flying instructor. Even if she’d been teasing Severus far too much, she was still being very nice letting them use her broom like this. 

“Thank you again, Madam Hooch,” she said.

“Oh my, you are just so polite,” gushed the old witch. Eyes on Severus, she proclaimed, “That must be your mother’s influence.”

Lottie tried not to let her smile fall. Voice soft, she murmured, “…Yeah.”

Severus’s arm snaked around her waist and she could almost swear he’d given her a squeeze to comfort her. “I’m taking off now, girl,” he said into her ear. “Hold tight.”

She nodded and wrapped her hands around the broom handle. “Uh-huh.”

With that, they lifted into the air. Once they were as high as it was safe to go, they began to fly away from where they started. Madam Hooch was just a speck among the Quidditch pitch’s green grass and Hogwarts looked far less intimidating from the height they were now at. Lottie laughed freely and begged they go skim over the Black Lake.

“Are you mad?” asked Severus.

She tilted her head back and grinned. “It’s one of my favorite things to do when Darla an’ me race!”

He shook his head, seemingly shocked. “Your father must not know.”

Sev didn’t. However, she wasn’t going to tell  _ Severus  _ that. Instead, she pleaded one last time. “Oh, just once?”

He swore beneath his breath, but soon they were flying in the direction of the lake. 

Elated, Lottie twisted her shoulders around and leaned in close to Severus. It seemed she was causing him some alarm with her actions as he’d slowed down their flight. Lottie, however, didn’t let it deter her in the slightest from stretching her torso as far as she could and placing a quick peck on her not-dad’s chin. “Thank you!” she shouted before turning back around.

Severus made a noise between a sigh and a scoff, but picked up his pace and began to lower them the nearer they came to the school’s lake. Giggling to herself, Lottie thought that if he’d been alarmed by her turning to kiss his chin, he was going to  _ freak  _ when she leaned over to skim her arm in Black Lake.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> How did you like the chapter?
> 
> Thank you for reading and please let me know your thoughts with a comment and/or kudo :)


	6. Finding Edie

Finding Aurora Sinistra to call on was a little more effort than Severus cared for. Unlike many professors who could be found in their quarters or offices outside of class hours, or perhaps a favorite spot in the castle, Aurora could rarely be found in the same place twice. Her artistic endeavors took her all over Hogwarts to hunt for new and interesting sights to paint and draw. When he finally did find his colleague and old housemate, she was tucked behind a wide stone pillar on Hogwarts’s third floor, staring out a tall, oblong window, drawing a scene of two Gryffindor boys playing Gobstones out on the grounds. 

Severus privately sneered to himself, but otherwise did his best to hide his distaste for the pair. Slowly, he made his presence known by encroaching on the astronomy professor’s space. Even when he firmly planted himself in her peripheral vision, the dark-skinned witch did not look away from the two boys, one fair, one dark like herself. Another professor may have called Aurora’s name, but he did not.

She was doing this on purpose, attempting to finish some detail about the pair of students before it changed and was lost to her forever. Finally, Aurora caught it and put her quill and sketchbook down. Turning herself fully towards him, she stared up with dark, deep-set eyes and said, “Afternoon, Severus, what can I do for you?”

He didn’t reach for the pensieve or memory in his pocket. Instead, he nodded at the witch in a return greeting. She was one of the few professors he actually could and liked to have a civil conversation with from time to time. Unlike many of their colleagues, she was only a handful of years older than himself. 

When he’d begun as a student of Hogwarts, she had been a fifth year in Slytherin. Then, later, in ‘81, they had both joined the staff and built a comradery in their next couple of years teaching. He and Aurora shared the duties of looking after their old alma mater together and making sure their snakes had someone who they could look to for guidance when other professors neglected them in favor of other students or blamed them for trouble that was not their fault. 

“It is but a small favor,” he answered.

Her plump lips twitched. “Would it happen to involve the little girl staying with you?” she asked.

He nodded. “Yes, I wish to find her mother.”

Aurora’s eyes turned searching. “Oh?” she said. “Do you know who and where she is?”

“I have an idea,” he answered. Which was both a true answer and a lie. Technically he knew neither, but he also had recently come to surmise a lot about Edie. Most of which he was certain he’d soon discover he had been right about. “If she exists and lives still, I may be able to locate her, however.”

His fellow professor’s interest only seemed to deepen as she leaned in, fingers wrapping around her quill again. “Lives still?” she echoes.

He nods. “The war could have taken her,” he says. It is true, several skirmishes happened in and around Knockturn Alley back then. It’s entirely possible one took her life since she was not safe in his flat with his nonexistent sister.

Aurora looked away at that. Her own family had been touched by the war. Though no one had been lost, a business was set back and a marriage ruined. “Ah,” she replied.

Severus reached into his pocket and pulled out the Pensieve and bottled memory. Turning them to their correct sizes, he explained, “I took a memory of her mother from Lottie, I was hoping you could look at it and draw me a sketch of her that I may use to aid me in my search.”

She nodded and got to her feet. “I can do that,” she said.

Severus put the memory in the Pensieve and stepped aside, allowing Aurora access to it. She then placed her head within the memory and it stayed there a time. When she pulled her face out of the Pensieve, she lifted her sketchbook and quill and began to draw. She repeated this process several times over and when she was done, she had a decent rendition of Edie’s face from the memory.

Looking from her drawing to Severus, she remarked, “The little girl looks a lot like her.”

“She does,” agreed Severus as Aurora ripped the picture from her pad and handed it to him. And Lottie did take after her mother in many distinct ways. They shared the same dark brown hair, snub nose, narrow chin, svelte frame…

Aurora did not leave her commentary there, however. “What, exactly, is yours in her?” she asked.

He stared darkly at his colleague a moment. Why she asked he didn’t understand. They both knew the child wasn’t his. It was plain as day the girl did not share blood with him. Yet somewhere, for some reason – a reason he still did not quite grasp – another Severus had claimed her as his own. The picture held tightly in his fingers, he used his other hand to draw his wand, gather, shrink, and pocket the Pensieve and memory. When finished, he said to Aurora, who watched him still, “I gave her things better than a mouth or eyes.” 

He bared his teeth at the witch. “She will be great,” he swore. “The girl will be more than I and better than me because she has my mistakes and experiences to learn from.”

She said nothing, eyes wider than before. He turned on his heel and left the witch where he found her.

Lottie needed a copy of the picture before he left to go and find her mother for her.

-o-O-o-

Severus stared at the tenement building. It was a long, squat brown-brick building. He wasn’t unfamiliar with them at all, having lived in a similar one on the other side of Knockturn Alley during his days as a clerk at the Mulpepper’s Apothecary. However, this one felt a little grittier. Perhaps because he knew it was the favored housing location for prostitutes, reprobates, and thugs. Pulling down the hood of his cloak, Severus looked to the address on the scrap of parchment on his hand. It’d taken some time, a little convincing, and money, but he’d managed to find out not only was Edie still alive, but she was also still a prostitute here in Knockturn Alley.

Walking into the building, Severus put the piece of paper away and kept his eyes wide-open as he traveled down narrow corridors to the back of the building. It was not entirely quiet or empty, in spite of it being in the middle of the day. He heard some muffled shouting behind the closed doors of a couple of flats and there had been a pair of women outside another flat’s door, sharing a cigarette. A few times, he almost bumped into errant children who really looked too young to be wandering the building on their own. Severus didn’t stop for them, however, they were not his problem.

 _His_ problem was the ones at Hogwarts, his students, and Lottie, his… _his_. After going up a flight of stairs, it didn’t take long at all for Severus to finally reach the door of Edie’s flat. Double-checking the numbers against the ones written on his parchment, Severus nodded to himself, satisfied. This was her home.

He knocked on the door.

A minute later, it opened. Severus stared at the witch in the doorway with no small amount of interest. She looked very much like Lottie’s memories of her mother. She had the burn scar on her face, her eyes were that captivating hazel, and the stern expression she currently wore matched the one she often had given their misbehaving children in the world Lottie came from. However, there were differences too. Edie’s brown hair was dull and messy, her collar bone was uncomfortably pronounced, and ugly bruises covered her small, short-fingered hands like she’d had to defend herself from blows.

Severus frowned.

“Can I help yeh?” she demanded, shifting to show that there was an old, chipped wand in a holster on her hip.

He nodded. “Yes,” he said. “Perhaps I may come in?” he suggested. “It is a rather long story.”

Edie curled her fingers nervously around the edge of her flat door. Severus pursed his lips, realizing his mistake. “Or perhaps you would prefer to go out?” he suggested. “We could speak over a meal at White Wyvern’s.”

She glanced back over her shoulder. “I don’t have money fer tha’.”

“I’ll pay,” Severus assured her. “It is I inconveniencing you, after all.”

Edie eyed him. “I will need payment fer anything else upfront.”

He nodded, almost smirking. He was sure Edie would be quite shocked when their lunch at Wyvern didn’t turn into the type of exchange she was expecting this to be. “Of course,” he said.

“Ren, bring me me cloak,” Edie called over her shoulder.

Severus stiffened. Ren? Who was Ren? A roommate? His questions were quickly answered when a little boy with short, tight black curls appeared at Edie’s elbow, a ratty cloak hugged to his chest. Edie smiled at him as she took the cloak. The little boy didn’t return her affection and, instead, glared at Severus.

Glancing from him to Edie, he realized the boy must be her son. There was some resemblance, between them, even. Their oval-shaped faces were alike and while his eyes were a shade or two darker (much like his complexion), they were still a hazel-hue like Edie’s. Severus cursed internally. This changed things. No one had mentioned she had a child (though, he’d wondered if she might. He’d been especially curious to know if it would be a pair of girls who looked like Lottie or a different child(ren) altogether). The real question now became would convincing her to come to Hogwarts with him be easy when she had a child to care for already?

Severus gave the obviously distrusting boy a half-smile. “Hello,” he said. “How do you do?”

The boy, Ren, scowled harder at him.

Edie sighed and rested a hand on her son’s head. “Answer Mr.…?”

“Snape,” said Severus. “I am Severus Snape.”

“Mr. Snape,” Edie echoed, nodding her head in thanks.

Ren looked from his mother to him and spat, “Not well at all anymore.”

Edie gave her son’s ear a tug. “Ren,” she chided as he winced.

Severus only smirked. “Why don’t we bring him along?” he suggested.

Edie’s eyes flew wide and Severus saw it was probably best he start to explain now what he wanted from the woman in front of him before she got the entirely wrong idea about him. “I know what you do for work,” he told her. “However, that’s _not_ what I want from you.”

The woman, now clutching her boy close to her, looked at him warily. “Then wha’ do yeh want?” she asked.

Slowly, Severus lifted his cloak and then used his other hand to reach into the small pocket of the vest he wore beneath. From the pocket, he pulled the photo he had of Lottie from it. She’d taken it of herself while playing with Poppy’s camera in her office a week ago. The nurse had given it to him when he came to pick Lottie up after his classes were over and said for him to cherish it (if he listened to her, time would tell).

Severus had the photo with him today, but he knew soon it would go in the small tin he kept his childhood mementos, letters from Lily, and photos of the two of them in soon enough. It would be something he only looked at after a half-bottle of whiskey to fortify his heart. A month ago, he’d been sure he would never miss the girl once she was gone, but now… 

He shook his head and focused his attention on Edie and her son. The two were staring at the picture of his other self’s daughter’s laughing, smiling face with a small amount of disconcertion. “She looks sort o’ like yeh, Mummy,” the boy whispered.

Edie, who’d almost reached out to stroke Lottie’s face before pulling back, murmured, “Yer right.”

“This little girl very much wishes to see you,” Severus said.

Edie looked at him then, confusion clear on her face, though, she said nothing.

He stepped aside to let the two come out of their flat. “Let’s have lunch,” he pressed. “I will tell you everything.”

-O-

White Wyvern’s was just as Severus recalled from his days living in Knockturn Alley. It was a hole of a pub. The walls were likely once a rich red color, but years of smoke from candles and patron’s cigarettes, cigars, and pipes had turned it to a dark brownish color. The wood top of the bar was similarly darkened from business and patrons and gouged and scuffed as well. 

The small table Severus had seated himself, Edie, and her son at had not faired much better. They were perhaps not quite as old as the bar, but they’d obviously been repaired more than once after being knocked about or used in a barfight by Wyvern’s less savory patrons. In spite of all its faults, Severus felt completely at home in the pub.

This pub reminded him of a great deal of the one from his youth. In his childhood, his dad had frequented a similar pub. A pub Severus had spent more time visiting than he liked to think about. From the familiarity, he drew more comfort than he’d ever drawn from the opulent and pristine homes of the Purebloods he knew and associated with now in his present life. A glance across the scarred table told him that Edie and Ren were equally at ease in this rough, unscrupulous place.

Something about that was unsettling to Severus. To know that even with all his efforts to be a greater, more respectable man that he still related better to a pair of Knockturn Alley rats than his “peers”. Before it could overtake him, Severus pushed the thought from his mind and instead waved over a craggy-faced ancient barmaid and demanded whatever the day’s special was in addition to a refill on their butterbeers. She took his order with a scowl and walked off without any indication of when his requests would be filled. Severus didn’t mind, he really wasn’t all that hungry. The meal was offered as a favor for Edie and her son, who looked like they could use something hearty to eat.

While they waited for their food, he returned his attention to Edie.

She stared back at him with a watchful, wary gaze and Severus knew she was waiting for him to speak first. It was also obvious beneath all of her skittishness she was deeply curious about what he wanted with her, what Lottie had to do with his calling on them. Severus decided to take pity on the witch and bring an end to her self-imposed silence by starting the conversation.

He explained, “I am a professor of Hogwarts. In the last month, things have been… turned upside down for me.”

Edie nodded but continued to hold her tongue, waiting for more information. 

“One day, a little girl, the one from the photo, turned up. She called me her father and acted as if she knew me and Hogwarts was her home.” Looking from Edie to her son, he explained, “As you can imagine, I found that to be quite unbelievable.”

The barmaid showed up and levitated three new butterbeers onto the table. They sloshed a little as they landed, but none of them cared and Severus picked up his new glass and took a long slip as the barmaid left with their old, empty glasses. When he finished drinking from his glass, he put it down. “It was true,” he said to the mother and son. “Somewhere, anyhow,” he amended. 

“Somewhere?” repeated Edie, her own hands wrapped around her glass while her son slurped the foam off of the top of his drink.

Severus nodded his head. “Yes,” he replied. “It seemed the girl stumbled across a reality-shifter and shook it. It took her from her reality to this one, where I am not her father, but I am still me.”

The witch frowned. “I’ve never heard o’ such a thing,” she told him with no small amount of suspicion.

He nodded. It was understandable. He hadn’t either before Lottie’s appearance. “It’s a rare device,” he explained. “Quite strictly controlled by the Ministry as well,” he added.

“Yet a lil’girl got her hands on one?” said Edie her tone doubtful and the grip on her glass becoming even tauter.

“Much to her misfortune,” agreed Severus simply. He knew there was little in the way he could do of offering proof right now. Only seeing Lottie, Hogwarts, hearing the story from the girl’s own mouth and those of other professors would cause it to truly sink in for the witch.

“Wha’s tha’ have ter do with me mum?” asked the little boy. Severus raised an eyebrow at him. Ren’s second glass of butterbeer was already gone. Severus hoped he wouldn’t be cajoled in taking the child back to the loo soon. He looked just young enough a parent would want to accompany them to supervise and make sure they washed their hands.

Even with the possibility of a run to the loo looming over his head, Severus almost smirked at the child, impressed a little bit by his cleverness. “Your mother,” he turned his eyes on Edie, “Is the girl’s mother from the reality she comes from.”

Edie’s mouth dropped open. Severus had obviously shocked her to her very core. The boy, given his young age, took it in stride and said instead, “Does tha’ mean she’s me sister?”

He barked a surprised laugh. Severus hadn’t thought of it that way, but he supposed Lottie was this child’s sister. “In a way,” he answered. “Her mother is an Edie as well.”

“Wicked,” the boy breathed, wide-eyed and smiling.

“Owen,” snapped Edie at the boy. “She is not yer sister.”

The child shrank back in his seat and Severus sighed. It seemed it would take actual convincing to make Edie come back to Hogwarts with him to see Lottie. He wondered what he would have to offer her before she would agree. “No,” he said. “Not truly,” he said. “However…”

“Wha’ do yeh want?” demanded Edie, cheeks flushed and eyes grey in their glacial fury. “I’m not tha’ child’s mother.”

“I am not her father,” he said to the witch. “However she still _wants_ me.”

Edie pursed her lips and the burn scar on her jaw stretched in an ugly way that Severus did his best not to stare at. “Yer sayin’ this girl wants me?” demanded Edie. “A _stranger_?”

He held back a growl. “She doesn’t see us as strangers,” he explained to her. “We are her parents in her eyes, even if we are only shades of them.”

She curled her lips back in a snarl. “I don’t have money fer another child,” she snapped. She gestured to her son and said, voice strained, “I can hardly afford _him._ ”

Ren looked away from Severus and Edie and for a brief moment, Severus felt sympathy. His mother had never said such, but he knew she had seen him as a burden when he was a child too. He’d been yet another expenditure that his mother had to meticulously account for when she was trying to find ways to keep her and Tobias’s rowhouse over their heads. That sympathy was only a small bit of what he felt, however. The greater feeling coursing through him was anger.

This time, Severus did growl at the witch. “She is mine!” he hissed at Edie. “I would _never_ give her to a _whore_.”

“Don’t talk ter me mum like that!” hollered the little boy, having been snapped out of his shame by the insult thrown at his mum. Ren slapped his hands down on the table and drew the eyes of many, including the approaching barmaid with their lunches. Both Severus and Edie give the boy both a deadly look that had him falling back into his chair, quailing away from their combined disgust and fury. As he sat there, shaking, the barmaid placed their food on the table.

“There a problem?” she asked in a neutral tone. Severus knew there was a threat behind the words, however. If they didn’t keep this controlled, she would have the wizard behind the bar throw them from the pub.

He shook his head at her. “Thank you for the food,” he said instead.

She grunted and left the three of them to their meals and dilemma. When they were gone and the pub’s patrons’ eyes had left them, Edie turned to her son and said, “This is an adult conversation. Keep yer mouth shut.”

Ren scowled at his mother but said nothing in favor of picking up his fork and stabbing the questionable slab of meat on his plate. Severus watched with mild disgust as the boy picked up the piece of meat and began to gnaw on it instead of using the knife resting on the table to slice off a piece.

Edie paid the child no mind at all and instead returned her attention to Severus. “If yeh aren’t trying to ge’ rid o’ the girl, then why are yeh botherin’ us?” she demanded.

“It’s as I said,” he told her. “She very much wants to see you.”

The witch scoffed. “She don’t want ter see no whore.”

No, Lottie didn’t. However, she didn’t have to be one while she visited with the girl. “I’d put you up,” he said. “Get you free room and board in Hogwarts,” he told her. His eyes drifted to Ren, who was sitting straighter in his chair. The boy’s hazel eyes were nearly golden in color with how excited he was at the very name of the school. “In return,” he told Edie, “you would simply need to treat her how you do your son.”

“An’ where’s the money ter pay fer my flat goin’ ter come from while I’m playin’ mummy ter this girl?” demanded Edie, scowling at Severus with crossed arms. “I can’t work in Hogwarts or Hogsmeade.”

“I’ll pay,” said Severus. He had a decent amount of savings. He could afford a month or two worth or rent for her flat without issue. His eyes drifted back to the boy. Severus believed with all of him that Edie loved her son as much as Lottie’s Edie loved her. He knew how to cinch this deal. How to make it impossible for Edie to turn him down. “In fact, I’ll not only pay for your flat while you stay at Hogwarts, I will pay for whatever it is your son will need so he may attend the school when he is old enough.”

The little boy gasped. “Mum!” he exclaimed. “Mum, please can we go? I wan ter go ter Hogwarts!”

Edie looked completely stricken. He knew he had her. There was no way she could refuse him now. Hogwarts was a dream of many children. From the wealthiest to the most destitute. 

The unfortunate thing was the poorest did not always have the chance to attend for one reason or another. Their family may not have the money to afford supplies, or it could mean a loss of income if the child had a job or was the caregiver of younger siblings. Sometimes, they went unsent simply because the children were too uneducated, knowing not how to read or do more than simple addition and subtraction and the families did not want to embarrass themselves or their children. Severus was promising none of those would be an issue for Edie’s son. 

He would have the right supplies. There would be money for his mother if she needed it from Severus as well, and if she fell pregnant again and had an infant, he’d ensure she had childcare for it. Ren would have what Edie had not at his age, a bright future. Only a selfish, unloving mother would say no at this point. He already knew Edie was no such thing.

Feeling quite clever, he held back the smug smirk that wanted to bloom across his face. Severus had won. Edie would come with him to Hogwarts and Lottie would finally be… not happy, but possibly content until they could get her home. There would be no more crying at night. His guilt would be eased and the child’s daily care would no longer be his problem.

“Fine,” she spat. “We’ll come ter Hogwarts an’ I’ll _mother_ the girl,” she grumbled. “But I don’t wan’ her callin’ me mum.”

Severus did smirk this time. “That will not be an issue,” he promised. “Lottie will call you by name.”

The witch nodded, thrown off once more, and unable to find any more conditions to put in place. Severus picked up his fork and began to carve into his lunch. As he started to eat, he said to her, “Eat your lunch. After we are finished, we will return to your flat and pack. I want to be back by the early evening,” he said to the mother and son.  
For a brief moment, Edie seemed as if she was going to refuse him. Then, with a small, defeated sigh, picked up her fork and knife and began to eat her lunch.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Edie has appeared! And she has a little boy with her. Thoughts on that?
> 
> Thank you for reading and please let me know what you think with a comment and/or kudo :)


	7. Preparing for Hogwarts

After they finish eating their lunch with Severus Snape, the three of them go back to Edie and Ren's flat so they may pack their things for Hogwarts. The very name sent a little shiver down her spine. _Hogwarts_. It was a place most in Knockturn Alley only dreamed of attending.

Edie still didn't know how much of Snape's story she believed, but his offer had been too amazing for her to turn down. She frowned to herself. She would need to make sure the promise was secured when given the chance. Edie thought he probably wouldn't agree to an unbreakable vow, but perhaps something milder, like a written contract would be.

She would wait to bring that up, however.

Putting her last dress in her carpetbag, she closed the tarnished steel clasp at the top and stood up with it in her arms. Walking into the main room of her flat, she found that Snape was levitating her son's trousers into the kitbag she'd unearthed from her wardrobe. Ren's expression was one of delight. Edie's wand was mostly for show, not use. It was extremely ill-suited to her and took a great deal of exertion on her part to work. However, having it was better than not having it.

The men who bought her treated her with just a little more respect than they had when she didn't have a wand. If they thought it was because she could do something to them if they tried anything or if it was because they felt like she deserved it seeing as it had to mean Edie was a witch and not a squib, she wasn't sure. It didn't really matter to her either. Edie was just glad _something_ stopped them from doing things she didn't agree to to her.

"Are you ready?" asked Severus when he saw her in the doorway of her bedroom.

She nodded at the black-haired wizard. "Yes," she answered.

He gestured to her fireplace. "Is it connected to the floo network?" he asked.

Edie said, "Yes."

"We'll floo to The Three Broomsticks," he explained. "We can walk to Hogwarts from there."

Ren started to hop in place and Edie fought down the fond smile that wanted to spread across her face. She loved her son, but she was uncomfortable letting it show, especially in front of a strange man who may try to use it against her later. "Yay!" her son babbled. "I've always wanted to see there too."

"You'll enjoy it," promised Severus as he levitated Ren's kitbag into the air. "Now, come along," he said, gesturing for them to squeeze into the fireplace. When they were all inside of it, Severus looked at her. "Would you like to do the honors?"

She blinked at him, surprised he would let her. She could mess up on purpose, try to lose him and run away with her son. Edie wondered if he knew just how little trust she had in him and his story. He must not realize at all. Even so, she agreed. "All right," she said. Grabbing a fistful of shimmery floo powder, she threw it down at their feet and called out, "The Three Broomsticks!"

Not two minutes later the three of them file out of a fireplace in a pub. Unlike White Wyvern, it was not dimly lit or smokey. In fact, it was almost sunny and the air was completely clean. It was wondrous. Snape did not let them gawp at the warm, inviting surroundings for long. "Come," he said, jerking his head in the direction of the pub's door. "Lottie is waiting."

Edie almost sighed, but instead, she took her son's hand and trailed after Snape. Her disappointment quickly disappeared once she was outside. Much like the pub, Hogsmeade itself felt like an inviting place. The homes and businesses lining the cobbled street were cozy and quaint.

Much like in Knockturn, many of the buildings were made of stone and brick, but unlike those buildings back home, these were not covered in layers of grime and soot. Many of the homes and flats above the shops had flowers in boxes in front of their windows and ivy crawling up the plaster walls.

Edie walked nearer to a house with flower boxes filled with pink and red flowers in front of a shutter framed window. She nearly dipped her face into them to smell the scent but stopped herself. She wasn't a child. Ren, however, _was_ a child. A seven-year-old boy at that. He let go of Edie's fingers and gripped the box. Sticking his funnel-shaped nose into the flowers he breathed deeply.

When he pulled back, he grinned at both her and Snape. "They're nice," he told them. "D'yeh know wha' kind they are?"

Edie did her best not to cringe. She did not. Her life hadn't lent to her learning very much about flowers. She was about to inform her son that, no, she didn't. As well as that they could perhaps look into it later when Snape said, "Geraniums. They do well in boxes like this one."

Ren gave the black-haired wizard a big, almost mooning stare."Oh," he said.

Snape paid his expression no mind as his eyes quickly moved off of him and to something a little way ahead. He pointed at a storefront with two window turrets. Edie squinted her eyes and read the small green sign between the windows. It said "Gladrags Wizardgear". She pursed her lips and was going to ask what was interesting about the store when he said, "Ren, how would you like to have a new set of robes for your first visit to Hogwarts?"

For a moment, Edie gaped at the wizard right along with her son. Though, it was for an entirely different reason than Ren. He could not be serious. She was _not_ going to be indebted to this man more than necessary. "Mr. Snape—" she began only to be cut off by Ren.

"Can I pick the color?" he demanded, hopping away from her to stand next to Snape who almost was smiling at her boy.

She scowled and tried to scold her son, "Ren—"

"Yes," said Snape, leaving Edie feeling even more annoyed.

"We will have ter turn yeh down on yer offer, Mr. Snape," she declared, arms crossed. "Our robes are perfectly fine," she said. They were too. Edie had just patched up the hole in Ren's elbow last week and re-did the hem on the bottom of her own a few days ago when she realized it'd become worn from dragging on the stone streets of Knockturn Alley.

"Aw, Mum!" whined her son, little face dismayed and flat brows drooping. Edie silenced him with a glare and he turned his pout to his toes.

Snape cleared his throat, drawing her attention to him. "Please call me Severus," he asked, and then, he turned silent. Edie realized after a beat he meant for her to agree or, perhaps, disagree. To hurry things along, she nodded her head even though Edie didn't know if she'd remember to call him by his first name when the time came to address him.

This appeared to satisfy him as he gave a dip of his own strong chin before he said to her, "I insist, Edie. I'd like to buy you a set as well. I believe you will both be more comfortable at Hogwarts in them."

It all slotted in Edie's head with perfect clarity. Snape thought they looked _unrespectable_ for his company. Any sort of goodwill she'd felt for the wizard vanished. Sneering at him, she said, "Yeh mean _yeh'll_ be more comfortable."

He seemed at first startled, then affronted, and finally tired. "…We all will be, you, Ren, myself, _and_ Lottie," he said.

Edie's anger cool at the mention of the girl he supposedly had waiting for him, for them, at Hogwarts. If everything was to be believed (and, somehow, with every passing minute she was becoming more convinced) the girl recognized her as her mother. Who knew what Edie's life had been like where she was this girl's mother, but if Snape was a professor there too, she doubted she was selling herself nightly and daily to men who traveled through Knockturn Alley. She probably had a different, more respectable job that occupied her time.

She looked over Snape, paying close attention to his crisp, dark brown robe and the well-tailored gray chino pants and vest he wore beneath it. Edie couldn't possibly guess how deeply the similarities ran between this man and the man that was Lottie's father were, but he probably dressed like him. He was a bloody professor of _Hogwarts_. If that didn't call for some type of sharp presentation, she didn't know what would. As his wife, she probably sported similar smart fashion.

Suddenly, she felt guilty. Edie looked nothing like a woman who could be called this man's wife. The fact Snape had decided he still wanted to bring her to the girl even after he realized what she was proved he was a far better man than she could ever hope to be a woman. He cared more about making the girl happy than he did embarrassing himself. The least she could do was lessen it by at least attempting to look a little less like a two-knut whore for him and the girl.

"Am I getting a new robe or not?" demanded Ren in a huffy tone she'd typically give his ear a twist for. However, this time, she didn't bother. He'd shaken her from her wallowing.

For his part, Severus simply raised an eyebrow and asked, "Is he?"

"Yeh can buy us each _a_ robe," said Edie with a hard frown she didn't mean. She would let him dress them up a bit, disguise their true lot in life. However, she would not accept more from him than absolutely necessary. Edie knew exactly where greed could cause somebody to end up and she would not become another fable for the sin.

"Thank you, Edie," replied Severus with a small smirk before he brought them to the store and opened the heavy oak door for them to enter into the shop.

Edie found her steps faltering once she was barely past the threshold. It was an extremely odd place. The walls were covered in orange and red mushroom patterned wallpaper. A giant, elegant gold chandelier hung from the middle of the ceiling and was what offered the most light in the main room beside the occasional deer-head shaped wall sconce. There were racks and racks of clothes placed with apparently no strategic sense all over the place. Near the store's register, set up to the right of the doors, was a small yellow-painted table just brimming with strange socks of all colors, patterns, and sizes.

In spite of all of these strange and peculiar details that may lead one to believe this store had nothing for anyone who wasn't completely mad, the mannequin placed nearest the doors wore the most lovely robe. It was a deep burgundy hue with an empire style waist cut and two mid-sized smokey mother of pearl buttons beneath the collar to close the robe. Her eyes drifted to the sleeves. Unlike many robes that had flowing sleeves and impractical flounces around the cuffs, this one was simple in style. It was loose, but not wide, and there were no stupid laces or plaits to make it "pretty".

"Merlin," she whispered to herself. There was no way she could get that robe even if it was everything she'd ever wanted in one. For it to be on display like that… It meant it was new, or expensive. Perhaps both. Which meant it would be even _more_ costly. She would have to look for something more suitable in one of the sales racks. If she were lucky, they'd have just clearanced a decent robe that wasn't too froofy.

Severus chuckled. "It is a bit overwhelming, isn't it?" he asked.

Edie was about to agree, but Ren ran up to her. She blinked. Edie hadn't realized he'd left her side. He was smiling widely at her, showing off his missing teeth, an incisor on the bottom, and a canine on top. In his hands were an awful pair of pinkish socks decorated with strange yellow bricks with wings.

"Mum! Mum! Looks at these socks!" he exclaimed. "They're decorated with sticks of butter with wings!"

Those were supposed to be sticks of butter? Well. That was… different. "Very nice," she said all the same, trying to sound as interested as her son clearly was.

"The socks are playing with the word butterfly," explained Severus, surprising her when he crouched down next to Ren and pointed at one of the winged sticks of butter. "They are trying to be amusing by having sticks of flying butter because the word is made of 'butter' and 'fly'."

"Oh!" exclaimed Ren, wide-eyed. He smiled at Severus. "Tha' is funny."

Severus raised an eyebrow, clearly not in agreement. However, he did not voice it to her son in favor of straightening himself out and smoothing the wrinkles from his pants."If you behave for your mother and I while we fit you two for your new robes, I'll let you choose a pair of new socks to go with your robe," he bribed.

"Sev'rus, no," Edie hissed, reaching over and grabbing his sleeve.

"Really!" yelled Ren, hopping up and down and ignoring the scowl she was sending him. "Tha'd be wicked!" He tipped forward and wrapped his arms around Severus's waist a moment. "Thank yeh," he said into the wizard's middle.

Edie was stiff as a board as she watched Severus. Thankfully, he didn't seem upset to be touched by her grimy son. Instead, he gave the top of his head a pat before carefully extracting him. "A pair of socks is paltry compared to what I outfitted his sister with when she first arrived," he remarked to her.

Edie frowned, annoyed once more. She knew, in a sense, that this Lottie and her Ren were brother and sister, but she didn't want that idea to be put in Ren's head. He'd be devastated when Lottie went home. "I don't like yeh callin' her tha'," she muttered at him.

"She is, in a way," he insisted. Then he sighed and Edie realized he was resigned. "It doesn't matter what we feel, I know Lottie will call him her brother the moment she learns how he relates to you." Darkly, he added, "And there will be no way to shut her up."

Edie almost giggled. She was still uncomfortable with calling her son the brother of this still unknown girl, but it also amused her he was only trying to prepare them for Lottie. It seemed the child was a strong-willed thing. "Yeh've let her wrap yeh around her lil'finger haven't yeh?" she joked.

Severus rolled his eyes. "That is not it at all," he said. "She is a bullheaded child and I have learned very quickly there are some trivial things that must be dropped in the face of her nature in favor of being able to win larger arguments."

Edie rolled her eyes. She had a feeling Severus just didn't know much about little girls (which was doubly amusing given he was a professor of teenage ones) "Sure," she said before leaving him to go browse a circular rack of what looked to be the store's children's' robes. Flipping through the selection, she pulled one, and then another, that seemed to be near enough to Ren's size. "Ren! C'mere," she called to the boy who'd moved on to inspecting a small mannequin in the corner of the room opposite of her. "They got some very nice green robes," she explained when his little head swiveled around to look at her. She held them up for his inspection. "Which would yeh like?"

Now standing in front of her, Ren pointed at the bright green robe with tan trimming around the hem and cuffs. "That one!" he proclaimed. Then, without prompting, he explained to both her and a watching Severus, "It's the same as the wallpaper at Nan Annette's."

Edie felt her smile become strained. _Nan Annette_. She'd stopped leaving Ren with her over two months ago after deciding he was plenty old enough to watch himself. When would he stop talking so fondly of the witless witch? "Yeh sure?" she asked, eyes drifting to the more muted green robe with many blue buttons sitting in the crook of her elbow.

"Yes!" affirmed Ren. Eyes drifting back to the table of socks, he declared, "I'm gonna go find a pair I want."

Edie sighed. Well. If he were occupied with them he _would_ be good and more than deserved that pair of socks Severus promised him. "Nan Annette?" asked Severus in a murmur, causing Edie to jump. "My apologies," he said.

She flashed him a short smile. Then, with another sigh, explained to the wizard, "His old minder." She felt herself become aggravated anew as she explained to Severus, "The bloody bat decided she didn't think me son looked like an 'Owen' an' started callin' him Ren." She looked down at the robe Ren wanted and ran her fingers along the soft fabric. "It's all he'll answer ter now."

He made a noise of indignation. "Bitch," he grumbled. Then, an air of almost hesitancy overcame him and Edie watched as he seemed to struggle for words. Finally, he asked, "I understand your means were limited, but there was truly no other to watch him?"

She shook her head. "None tha' I could trust not ter get drunk o' accept callers while watchin' 'im," she answered. If it could be called that, that had been Annette's one virtue. She had seen taking care of the handful of children she watched as a very important task that required her to be present and at her best.

Severus pursed his lips in disapproval, though, she had a feeling it wasn't aimed at her. "My apologies," he said.

"It's fine," replied Edie. She was actually surprised by the amount of sympathy he was showing for what had been done to her and her son. Most people she'd mention it to in Knockturn Alley always told her she should be _glad_ Annette wanted to watch her son. She was known as a good minder and many mothers were ever hopeful she'd meet and like their child and agree to watch them. Edie had been fortunate in their eyes to have gotten such a good person to watch her boy. "A nickname ain't the end o' the world," she said, echoing the words that had been spoken so frequently to her over the last seven years.

Severus didn't look like he agreed, but he voiced it anyway. "That is true," he said. Then, almost as if he was trying to make Edie feel better, he remarked, "He may find he prefers his name again once he's older."

"I hope so," said Edie, thinking of the future. She would be delighted if Ren chose he wanted to be Owen again one day. She'd picked his name for a reason. It was a good, tried name that a boy could wear proudly. Ren, however… She hoped when he went to Hogwarts no one would make fun of him for going by such a peculiar name.

"What robe would you like?" questioned Severus, drawing her out of her fears.

She blinked. Turning around, she looked at the rack of robes behind her. After a minute of flitting through the options there she plucked a magenta robe with only a few ruffles around the collar and garish lace at the sleeves out. It was about her size and if she talked to the tailor, they could probably take off the lace with no trouble. "This one will do," she said.

He narrowed his eyes at it and then looked at her. "You can have any, not just the sale ones."

Edie kept her features neutral and insisted, "Really, I like it."

He turned toward the doors. "I saw you stared at the one on the mannequin when we came in," he said. "Why don't we buy it for you instead?"

She sputtered at the suggestion. "I can't let yeh—"

"—Nonsense," cut in Severus. Turning his attention to the petite, golden-skinned woman behind the register, he said, "Miss, would you please take the robe off the mannequin. My…" he stumbled, eyes flickering to her. "My friend would like this one for herself," he finished, gesturing to the robe Edie had looked at with so much admiration when she walked into Gladrags.

Still speechless, Edie just watched as the small witch came out on the sales floor and performed a short series of spells to move the mannequin around and remove the robe. When she was done and it was neatly folded and in her arms, she offered a crooked-tooth grin and said, "Brilliant. Would you like them fitted today as well?"

"Yes, and quickly if possible," answered Severus. "They would like to wear their robes out today."

"Very good, thank you," she replied. Walking toward the back of the store where there were ember-colored curtains hanging, she looked at Edie and then Ren. "If your friend and her son would come with me?"

"Of course," agreed Severus. "Ren, come here," he called to the little boy who had still been deeply absorbed in the socks.

For a moment, Ren didn't answer. Then he spun around and ran to join them. "Look a' the socks I picked!" he exclaimed holding up a pair of blue socks patterned with orange, pink, and lime green owl-like creatures. "They have funny colored owls on them," he said.

"Those are fwoopers," corrected Severus as he took them from Ren and put them with the robe he'd picked out. "They are different from owls," he continued as they went behind the curtain and were met by a very pale and very freckled man. "In fact, their trilling can drive a person mad."

"Woah!" exclaimed Ren, all attention focused on Severus as Edie made the necessary pleasantries with the tailor who would be fitting her and Ren's robes. "Wha' else can they do?" he asked.

"I will tell you later," said Severus. Putting a hand on Ren's back, he gave him a small nudge to stand next to Edie. "You need to have your robe fitted."

"Okay…" he grumbled.

"I will go pay for your robes and socks in the meantime," he said, turning his attention back to the witch who was standing next to the open curtains.

"Thank yeh!" called Ren for both of them as Severus followed the witch back to the registers.

-o-O-o-

Walking into Hogwarts had been an experience and a half. Edie had felt breathless the moment she laid eyes on the old castle's walls and turrets and had not been able to keep herself from grinning when Ren began to bounce around her and Severus's feet. Unlike her, he'd been completely incapable of containing his delight. Thankfully, by the time they stepped into the ancient school, Ren had calmed down just enough to just be skipping ahead of them.

Severus had leaned over and said to her, "Lottie skips everywhere as well."

Edie had laughed and the eyes of some half-grown teenagers had landed on her. One, a boy made a face and she resisted the urge to pull the hood of her robe up. She knew she was not beautiful, but hiding herself would not change it. For his part, Severus had glared at him until he looked away, a little pale.

Edie didn't understand why, but she felt grateful. Severus led her and Ren through Hogwarts, stopping patiently each and every time something caught one of their eyes. Whether it was a portrait, suit of armor, or even just a window. They passed many students, all who watched with varying degrees of blatant curiosity. She had a feeling Severus turning up with a woman and child was not a usual sight.

She wondered why none were brave enough to approach and ask questions briefly, but let that train of thought go when Severus came to a stop in front of a portrait. He looked her in the eyes. "Lottie is inside," he explained. "I have told her I would bring you back this afternoon. Obviously, I did not know about your son." He hesitated. "I think it would be better if you two met alone first. I could take Ren elsewhere." His eyes drifted down to the boy who'd struck up a conversation with the centaur in the painting they'd paused in front of. "Perhaps the Quidditch pitch?"

Ren, of course, snapped to attention at that. He gave a broad grin. "I love Quidditch!" he exclaimed. "We listen ter it on the Wireless."

"If you're lucky, perhaps you can watch the students perform a game," remarked Severus.

Edie felt alarmed at those words. How long were they going to be at Hogwarts that they could watch a game? She didn't know a great deal about Hogwarts, but she did know there was only a handful over a school year. Later, she would have to really get Severus to clarify just how long he was going to have Lottie.

Ren grabbed Severus's hand. "Wicked!" he yelled. "Can we go see the pitch now?"

Severus didn't wrap his fingers around Ren's, but he also didn't pull away. "Yes," he answered. "Let's go."

"How do I get in?" asked Edie."

"Run your hand through the leaves above the centaur and ask him how the weather is," he answered.

She nodded. Then, to her son, she said, "Be good."

Ren just giggled and Edie waved at him and Severus as they let, leaving her alone in the corridor with the painting. She took a deep breath. Here went nothing. Running her hands over the leaves above the centaur's head, she asked, "How is the weather?" Edie jolted with surprise when the centaur smiled before the portrait slid away, revealing a doorway for her to walk through. She stepped inside and felt the portrait slide back in place behind her.

Walking forward, she stepped out of the tiny corridor and into a lounge room the size of her and Ren's flat. There was a girl in the room. She was on a dark blue tasseled rug in front of the room's lit fireplace playing with three dolls. For a moment, Edie just studied the girl.

She looked like the picture Severus had come alive. What really left Edie awed was how much Lottie looked like her. Her dark brown waves were the same as the waves hanging around her face. The girl's profile also looked a near-identical copy of her own. She touched her nose and felt tears spring to her eyes. This little girl was _hers_.

She cleared her throat.

The child's head turned and Edie was left breathless once again at getting a full view of Lottie's face. Until this moment, she hadn't quite believed what Severus had told her was true. But it was. This girl was real, her relation to Edie real, her history was likely real as well.

"Edie!" the girl yelled, dropping the doll she had been playing with to run at her and wrap her arms around Edie's waist.

Tentatively she returned the hug. "'Lo."

Lottie pulled away and smiled up at Edie with a mouth full of unevenly sized teeth. It seemed like Ren, she was in the process of losing her baby teeth and growing in adult ones. "You're here!" exclaimed the girl.

She smiled at her. "I suppose I am."

The girl's face turned abruptly somber. "I know you're not really my mum," she said, "but I've missed you."

Edie nodded. She thought she knew what Lottie meant. She'd gone weeks without seeing her mother's face and, now, here it was. Even if she was only a stranger (to her) wearing it. "I understand," she said.

Lottie gave her a speculative look. "Are you just visiting me?" she asked. "Or are you staying?"

Technically, Edie didn't know. They'd packed bags and Severus had said he'd pay a month or two's worth of rent. To her, that sounded as if they would be staying close by a while. If not in Hogwarts, probably Hogsmeade. However, just in case she had completely misunderstood or things took a turn for some reason, she answered, "Sev'rus an' I aren't done discussin' yet, but I think we'll be stayin'."

Lottie perked at that. "We?" she echoed.

Edie nodded. This would be, in a way, the moment of truth. "Meself an' me son," she answered.

"Son?" whispered Lottie, her dark, night-ocean blue eyes wide.

"Ren," she said, only to correct herself, "well, Owen."

Lottie started to look around the room with an avid, searching gaze. "Where's he?" she demanded. "I wanna meet my brother."

She almost laughed. Severus had been right about the girl. She saw her boy as her brother, even though, technically, there was no relation between them. Edie felt inexplicably fond of both Lottie and Severus for it. They saw them as family even when they clearly weren't.

"Sev'rus took Ren out ter the Quidditch pitch ter have a look," she told Lottie. The girl opened her mouth, looking as if she wanted to complain, but quickly shut it when Edie put a hand on her shoulder and smiled at her. "He thought yeh might like a mo' with me alone."

Lottie bobbed her head, satisfied. Then, eyeing her, she asked, "Ren likes Quidditch?"

"Loves it," answered Edie. When he was a baby, quidditch commentary was what soothed him to sleep. Why, she didn't know. Perhaps the deep drone of announcers' voices had been comforting to him.

"Me too!" exclaimed Lottie, bouncing around in a fashion that reminded her greatly of Ren. Briefly, Edie wondered if she wouldn't have been a child who skipped and hopped if she hadn't been expected to be an adult at all of six. She quickly put that thought out of her head. Looking back at then never led anywhere good. Instead, she focused on the girl, on her meeting with her Ren.

"Yeh'll have a lot ter discuss with him then," she said.

"I can't wait!" declared the girl.

Before the girl could dart off, possibly to find shoes to wear, she reached down and took her face in her hands. "Lottie," she said, staring into the girl's eyes.

"Yes, Edie?" replied Lottie staring back at her in a guileless, innocent way that even Ren couldn't anymore.

She sucked in a breath. This might be her only chance to ask this question and get an honest answer. "Yer… Yer happy where yer from?" she questioned. "Sev'rus an' me, we get along? Treat yeh an' yer sisters well?"

Lottie smiled. "Yeah, Edie. I really like home," she said.

"Good," she replied, letting the girl go. That was all Edie wanted to be sure about. She'd expected she would be. Severus was taking such good care of her here, in spite of her not being his true child, but one could never be sure if they didn't ask.

Instead of leaving her, Lottie's small fingers wrapped around her hand. "You and Sev don't say a whole lot about when you were my age, but I know you weren't happy then," she said causing Edie's breath to catch in her throat. A surprisingly serious expression on her small face, she told Edie, "I _swear_ I'm happy, though, okay?"

After a long moment, she gave the girl's head a faltering pat. "Okay, swee'," she said, feeling affection for the child surge in her breast. What a perceptive little thing. She was possibly even more aware than Ren, who she was constantly after to pay close attention to everything around him for his own safety. Migrating her hand to rest on the small of the girl's back, she guided her toward the portrait-blocked doorway. "Why don't we go meet with Sev'rus and Ren?" she suggested. "Yeh know the way ter the pitch I expect?"

"I do!" replied the girl with a wide smile. "I just need my shoes first!" Finally, as Edie had expected her to much earlier, Lottie ran off to find something to protect her stocking-covered feet.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Feelings on this chapter? Getting Edie's pov and her meeting with Lotie?
> 
> Thanks for reading and please let me know your thoughts with a comment and/or kudo :)


	8. Settling In

When they stepped onto the green of the quidditch’s pitch, Ren let go of Severus’s hands. Spinning in a sloppy circle as he took in the sight before him, he threw up his hands when he was facing Severus again and yelled, “It’s _huge_!”

It was quite large, Severus would agree, but nothing compared to a professional quidditch pitch. Staring down at the smiling boy, he decided it may be a good idea to plant the idea that Hogwarts was but a step to the larger world he now had open to him. “One day, you will see a professional quidditch pitch and Hogwarts will seem minuscule,” he told him.

Ren gaped at Severus. “Really?”

“Yes,” he affirmed with a nod.

Eyes almost golden in color, he yelled, “I can’t wait!”

Severus almost snorted. The boy would have at least another ten years before he’d see one. Unless a friend offered to take him to a professional game during his school days. Severus had no real interest in the sport and would not offer to take him to a match himself. 

As Ren continued to moon over the pitch, Severus said without understanding why, “I have taken Lottie for a ride on the flying instructor’s broom lately. Perhaps later, if your mother agrees, I can take you for a ride around the pitch.”

The boy’s eyes snapped to him. There was something sharp about them as he demanded, “Later when?”

“Before the end of next week,” replied Severus after a moment. “We will have to settle you and your mother in here at Hogwarts first.”

Ren’s eyes went wide. “We’re goin’ ter stay _here_?”

“Yes,” replied Severus. It seemed the best possible option to him. Lottie was going to want to have Edie near now that she’d met her. Edie staying in the castle, in his quarters, would make meeting that want easiest. “My quarters are a little small right now, but it can be fixed without much trouble.”

Ren squinted his eyes and pursed his lips. “We’re goin’ ter stay with yeh?”

“In your own rooms after today, yes,” he answered with a nod.

The little boy’s jaw dropped. “ _Rooms_?”

He rolled his eyes. “I can’t very well expect you and your mother to stay in Lottie’s bedroom,” he chided. “It used to be an alcove and really is just large enough for her bed, wardrobe, and her few toys.”

“What kind o’ toys does me sister have?” Ren asked, startling Severus. Why was that what the boy honed in on? Severus hadn’t many toys in his childhood and he’d never felt as if he’d missed out on anything either. The boy was watching him closely, however, and Severus sighed. He supposed it wouldn’t be that much trouble to answer. He knew what they all were.

“Quidditch dolls, mostly,” he answered. “A professor gifted her a kaleidoscope and another a small deck of chocolate frog cards.”

Ren’s shoulders fell. “Oh,” he said. “Well, I guess those can be fun.”

Severus almost felt amusement at the boy’s scrunched face. “What were you hoping she would have?” he asked.

“I dunno,” replied Ren with a shrug of his shoulders. His lips pursed briefly before he answered, sounding almost uncertain, “Blocks? Nan Annette had some tha’ made a train if yeh built ‘em right.”

Ah, so the child enjoyed creating things. That was much better than what Lottie appeared to enjoy, which was enacting her days out with her dolls as he graded student essays and exams. “I’ll speak with your mother,” Severus told Ren. 

Transfiguring blocks or even buying a set would not be difficult. It would also be a way to keep him occupied and quiet when Severus needed calm in his quarters to do his work. “Though, it may become a moot point,” he remarked as the boy began to hop around in excitement. Severus did not need to think much at all to recall picking up Lottie from the infirmary after a day of classes to find her hands filled with some new trinket or another. “My colleagues have been quite generous toward your sister,” he explained to Ren. “The transfiguration professor gave Lottie a bed for her dolls and our herbology professor gave her new clothes for them.”

“They’re gonna give me toys?” whispered the little boy in an awed way that made Severus feel uncomfortable.

Instead of focusing on the feeling, he corrected Rens’ speech. “ _Going to_ give you toys,” he said. It was better Severus got Ren to speak like him sooner rather than later. Some of Hogwarts students could be quite… Snobby and it wouldn’t due for his years here to be darkened by being looked down upon and bullied. Severus knew all too well what that was like. “Yes, there is a good chance they will,” he continued once the boy looked appropriately cowed. “If they do not, I will make sure you have something to play with,” he promised.

“Yer not _me_ dad too, are yeh?” asked Ren.

Severus for a moment could only stare bewildered at the boy. “Where in Merlin’s name did you get that idea?” he demanded once he had the sense to form words again.

Ren looked to his toes. “Yer bein’ awful nice ter me,” he mumbled.

He floundered for a way to explain what he was doing in a way that would not hurt the child and upset his mother, the one person Lottie seemed to miss most keenly. “I may have only known Lottie a short time,” he began slowly. “However, I do know she will expect I treat you as an equal to her.”

“‘Cause I’m her brother?” he questioned, looking up at Severus through his lashes.

Severus felt the tension in his shoulders lessen slightly. He was relieved that the boy was able to understand the implication of his words. “Yes,” he replied.

“…But yer definitely not me dad?” the boy questioned after a moment of hesitation.

He just barely kept his face from twisting into a scowl. “No,” he said a little more forcefully than he possibly needed to. In response, Ren stiffened and Severus sighed. “I would remember if I had seen your mother previously before today,” he explained in a softer tone.

The boy nodded his head before he offered, unprompted, “‘Cause of her scar, right?” 

Severus thinned his lips. “She is distinctive in many ways,” he replied as tactfully as he could. Yes, her scar would have been hard to forget, but she was much more than it.

“What’s distinctive?” asked the boy.

“It’s the same as unique.”

“Oh!” he exclaimed, lips lifting in a smile. “Like her eyes!” he said. “They change colors,” explained Ren as if Severus didn’t already know. “I don’t know anybody else’s eyes tha’ do tha’.”

Severus nodded all the same. The boy had absorbed his explanation very well. “That is very distinctive,” he agreed.

“Yeah, but I got ‘em too, see?” he said, pointing at his eyes. 

He gave a quiet huff of laughter. He thought the first years were terrible about pointing out obvious things. However, Ren and Lottie were quickly teaching him even younger children were worse about it. At least at their age, it was… amusing, not annoying. “Yes, you do take after your mother.”

“I like ‘em a lot, ‘cause, mostly, I think I gotta take after me dad,” explained the little boy, one of his small fingers tracing the shape of his eyes. “Me an’ Mum don’t share a lot else.”

Severus didn’t not miss the note of disappointment in his tone. “You may not share many obvious traits, but you do take after her,” Severus said to the boy.

“Like how?” demanded Ren, giving him a hard frown.

Severus didn’t have to think long, thankfully. “The shape of your face, how you speak.”

“Huh,” he replied.

Seeing a way he can assure the child shared appearances mean very little in the bond between parents and children, he reminded Ren, “Your sister doesn’t take much after me physically.”

The boy stared at Severus, clearly trying to figure out where Severus was going, and unfortunately, not comprehending. “…No,” he said after a while in way of defeat.

“I know she is loved by her father, who is another version of me,” Severus told Ren. It was quite obvious. The girl was never put off by his moods for long and shared many stories with his colleagues and even a few with Severus himself about her father and what he was like. “What I am trying to explain to you is that how one looks doesn’t affect how a mother or father loves them.”

“Okay,” said Ren staring up at Severus with a strange look in his eyes. He was going to see if he couldn’t decipher it through prodding questions or perhaps legilimency, but before he could do either, her heard Lottie yell for him:

“Severus!”

Severus smirked as Ren’s eyes shifted to what was likely his mother and Lottie. “Ah, that’s your sister calling,” he explained.

“Woah,” he whispered as his mother and Edie approached them. His eyes were trained on Lottie, who was grinning widely back at him. Clearly, she was just as taken by the sight of her brother as he was with her.

“Hello, Lottie,” Severus said once she and her Edie were in front of them. Snapped from her staring contest with her brother, Lottie looked up at him.

“Hi, Severus,” she said. Then, turning her attention back to Ren, she put out her hand. “‘Lo! You’re Ren, right?” she asked.

“Yeah,” replied the little boy. He then seemed to finally notice her hand and took it. Shaking it briefly, he said, “Hi.”

Lottie looked up at Severus then, a slight furrow between her brows. “Severus told you about me, right?” she asked.

“Yeah,” assured Ren, bobbing his head as Severus glared back down at Lottie. Of course he told the boy about Lottie. What in Merlin’s name would he have gained by _not_ telling him?

Lottie just gave him a pout before she demanded of Ren, “How old are you?” She smiled widely. “I’m eight!”

“Seven,” replied Ren. That surprised Severus only slightly. The boy looked like he had to be about Lottie’s age, but he’d been erring on the side of slightly older. It seemed his life in Knockturn Alley had matured him faster than usual.

Lottie’s expression turned serious. “Then I’m the big sister an’ I’m in charge.”

“That is not how that works!” sputtered Edie, drawing Severus’s gaze. She was looking down on Lottie and Ren with a shocked expression. Ren, for his part, had taken on a mulish appearance.

Crossing his arms, he spat, “Yeh can’t tell me wha’ ter do!”

Instead of being affronted by her brother’s words, Lottie covered her mouth and said, “You talk like Edie!”

“Edie?” echoed Ren with a frown. Face scrunched, he questioned, “Why’re yeh callin’ Mum tha’?”

“It’s what I always have,” replied Lottie with a shrug of her shoulders.

Ren turned his gaze to his mother. He pursed his lips and Severus raised an eyebrow, curious. “…Edie?” he tried.

Unsurprisingly to Severus, the witch gave a firm shake of her head at Ren. “No, yeh’ll continue ter call me mum,” she said. “Tha’s who I’ve always been ter yeh.”

“Do you want _me_ to call you mum?” asked Lottie, brushing up against her brother as she came to stand beside him.

“I’m happy with yeh callin’ me wha’ yer used to,” replied Edie, giving Lottie a slight, if strained smile.

Edie nodded. “Okay.”

“If you and Lottie have become acquainted, Edie, why don’t we take the children back inside?” suggested Severus. He looked to the sky. The sun was quickly setting on them, casting them all in an orange-yellow hue. “It is dinner time,” he said knowing even if it was not quite yet, it would be shortly. “We can have something in the kitchens and figure out arrangements for you and Ren tonight,” he offered.

“Alright,” agreed Edie, reaching to take Ren’s hand, then, after a pause, offering her other to Lottie. Gladly, the girl took it. Severus took in the sight with no small amount of fascination. The three looked like a family. “Wha’ about after ternight?” asked Edie as they began to stroll in the direction of the castle.

“I was thinking we could expand my quarters and you two could stay with us,” explained Severus as he fell into stride on the other side of Lottie. He kept his hands joined behind his back even as he did so.

“Yeh want us _livin_ ’ in your rooms?” said Edie with large eyes.

Severus turned his gaze to Lottie. “That is what you would prefer, isn’t it, Lottie?”

“Yes please!” she replied, giving first him and then Edie, a toothy smile.

“Then it is settled,” declared Severus.

Edie scoffed, but said all the same, “If yeh say so.”

-O-

Severus, Edie, Lottie, and Ren were seated around a small square table that the elves had in Hogwarts’s kitchens. Ren and Edie seemed to be extremely impressed by the house-elves, their magic, and cooking. When an unusually rotund elf came to the table with four plates of food and drinks floating behind him, Ren asked, “Do yeh have a name?”

The elf settled the food down in front of them and smiled at the boy, showing he was missing several teeth and causing Severus to think that he was likely an older house elf. “Yes,” the elf answered. “I ams Cworkey.”

“Thank yeh, Cworkey,” said Ren. 

Edie smiled at her son, which Lottie noticed, and she quickly followed her brother’s lead by saying, “Yes, thank you. I bet this is amazing!”

“Yours all very welcome!” replied the elf, ears a warm pink and smile even wider.

Edie gave Lottie a nod before she picked up her fork and began to cut into her meal. The elf left them and Severus and the children quickly joined in Edie in eating the sausage rolls they’d been served. 

As they ate, Lottie kept looking up from her meal and at Edie. After a while, she asked, “Edie, since you’re not Severus’s wife here, what are you?”

Edie, who had been in the midst of taking a drink from her pumpkin juice, immediately began to choke on it. Her son began to pat his back and said, “Careful, Mum!”

Once she had stopped coughing and taken a new sip of her juice, Severus decided to step in. Putting his napkin over his mostly finished dinner, he downed the rest of the glass of water he had been given and then pushed it at the girl. “Lottie, why don’t you and Ren take this over to Cworkey or one of his friends? You and Ren can watch how they do dishes without wands.”

The children scrambled off to do his requested task, Ren taking his own empty drink class with them in addition to Severus’s additions. Once the children were out of earshot, he cast a muffliato spell on himself and Edie. Then, he looked straight at the witch and demanded, “What do you plan to tell Lottie about yourself. She is going to ask about your and Ren’s life again soon.”

Edie frowned. “I’ll tell her wha’ I’ve told Ren,” she said as she pushed around her sausage roll on her plate. “I say I dance fer men. I’ll also tell her tha’ Ren’s dad move abroad before he was born after decidin’ he didn’t want ter be a father.”

“Abroad?” replied Severus, raising an eyebrow at her. He didn’t understand why that was a detail she’d included in her lie to her son

“He does want a father an’ he asks if we can ‘check’ if the man still doesn’t want ter be a dad,” explained Edie. “Sayin’ he’s abroad means I can say it’s ter expensive ter send letters abroad o’ make long-distance fire calls.”

“Hm,” said Severus, nodding his head. It was actually quite clever of her to find a way to make it seem impossible to locate Ren’s father.

“I can’t hide everythin’ from him forever,” admitted Edie, shoulders hunched with guilt. “But fer now I can keep the wors’ buried.” She looked up, her eyes not holding a speck of the golden color he knew them to typically have. “It’s the only way I know how ter even give him a shadow of the childhood I never had.”

Severus felt something stir inside him. It took a moment, but he identified it as sympathy. “That is… admirable,” he said. Then because he wanted to ease the guilt he saw still clinging to her frame, he said to Edie, “It seems to be working for you at the moment as well. I can already tell he’s a rather well-adjusted child given your circumstances.” Severus thought of his students. He’d seen more than one pureblood child from a family with a mother, father, siblings, and even grandparents close at hand who were more awkward and unsociable than Ren. “I’ve seen more than my fair share of poorly behaved boy and girls who come from much better backgrounds than him as a professor,” he said.

Edie’s face lifted and she gave a small smile to Severus. “Thank yeh. I appreciate tha’.”

“Do not keep the lie for much longer,” Severus warned Edie. “Children… They become less forgiving as the years continue.”

“I will,” promised the witch. She bit her lip before she said to Severus, “This year, before his birthday.” Severus approved in more ways than one. The younger he knew his true origins, the better. Before his birthday also gave Ren the ability to enjoy his birthday. Edie’s expression remained pensieve as she began to fiddle with her robe’s sleeve. “It’s not far away anymore, though, it’s the at the end o’ next month,” she admitted. 

“Next month?” repeated Severus not doing a very good job of hiding his surprise.

She gave him a sharp look. “Tha’s not a problem, is it?”

“No,” he assured her. Glancing over to the children, who were now watching the house-elf do other tasks around the kitchen, he muttered, “Let’s not bring it up to the children, however, until we know if Lottie will still be here.”

Everything seemed to point toward that Lottie would be with him, with _them,_ for some time to come. Quite possibly through Ren’s birthday, even. Severus was not willing to plan on it, however. He had been surprised in the past by how quickly things can change. Instead, he and Edie would put something together without the children until it was near enough to Ren’s birthday without a word on Lottie’s fate they could include her. When he looked back at the witch, he saw her face was taut.

“Wha’ if she’s not here?” asked Edie, probing him to see what Severus would do without the child that tied them.

Severus felt his features go slack. What Edie failed to realize was they were tied without Lottie. At least for a decade to come. He had promised payment for Ren’s needs in exchange for Edie’s cooperation. While a large birthday was far from necessary and quite possibly something none of them would want, he would still make sure that Ren had a memorable one. 

“I shall make sure it is still a happy birthday for your son,” he declared. His eyes meeting Edie’s wide, swirling gold and gray eyes, he explained, “I know you don’t grasp it entirely yet, but you are doing me an extremely large favor.” Then, softer, he explained, “Lottie is often beside herself at night without you.”

Edie pursed her lips at him. Severus felt as if she didn’t believe his words. “Me bein’ here might not change that,” she told him in a gentle cadence like she was trying to soften a fist to the stomach.

Severus frowned. He couldn’t see why it wouldn’t. Lottie had verbally asked for Edie more than once during the night. “It’s you she cries for.”

“It’s her _mum_ she cries for,” corrected Edie in a firm tone that tried to leave him no place to argue.

Severus, however, was not a man quickly silenced. “Do you not think you are an adequate stand-in?” he questioned as he raised his hands to rest on top of the table, one atop the other hand.

She shook her head, apparently stunned by his answer. “Sev’rus, nothin’ yeh o’ we do will ever be enough,” she told him after a beat, eyes soft and liquid gold. “We’re not her mum an’ dad, it’s almos’ like they’re…” she trailed off and lowered her tone to a hiss before she continued, “ _dead_. Only time’s goin’ ter mend wha’s broken.”

“…I had not thought of it that way,” he admitted after a time, feeling slightly abashed. Edie was quite right. All he was doing was putting balm on Lottie’s hurts. Soon, they would stop working and only time would ease her pains.

Edie forced a smile and reached out to give his hands a light pat, which he tensed beneath. “I’ll take care o’ her, no matter wha’,” she promised. “Yeh have a job ter do durin’ the day.”

He dipped his chin. “Thank you.”

Her expression changed and her gaze went back to the children, though, her eyes were focused on the house-elf. “Wha’ did yeh do with Lottie before yeh came fer me?” she asked.

“I left her with Poppy, Hogwart’s matron,” replied Severus.

Edie’s face took on a tinge of disapproval and Severus felt the urge to scowl overcome him. It wasn’t as if he’d had many options. Besides that, Poppy hadn’t once objected. She was not a woman to bite her tongue either. “Hm,” she replied.

Severus finally let the scowl take his face. She _did_ disapprove of his actions. “Poppy quite likes her and it seems Lottie had a close bond with her own in her reality,” he told the witch to show her he hadn’t been taking advantage of the matron.

She nodded. Though she was still stiff as she told Severus, “I’ll be keepin’ ‘em with me.”

“That is perfectly fine,” he agreed. Then a new thought coming to him as he realized he hadn’t really laid out many parameters at all yet, said, “You are welcome to wander Hogwarts at your discretion.” His light tone took a hard, unyielding turn as he informed Edie, “If you wish to go elsewhere, such as Hogsmeade, I ask for you to notify me.”

Edie dipped her chin in easy agreement. Severus reckoned he shouldn’t be surprised she took to the rule so easily. Chances were they wouldn’t be wandering off the grounds for some time to come anyway. Ren and Edie, unlike Lottie, had not grown up in the castle and would wish to explore every secret passage and dusty classroom before they started traversing the streets of Hogsmeade. “I can do tha’,” she promised.

Severus turned his features neutral. “Brilliant,” he said. Standing up then, he called out to Lottie and Ren. “Children,” he said. “Let us go see about setting up Ren and Edie with a place to sleep for the night and seeing when Professor Flitwick and McGonagall can help us make rooms tomorrow.”

-o-O-o-

In the end, it was decided that much like Lottie did on her first night, Edie and Ren would sleep in Severus’s lounge room. He felt some reluctance about it, however, as it would mean transfiguring the couch into a bed. As much as it bothered him to have it pointed out, he knew he was not good at transfiguration. The couch-turned-bed was going to be lumpy or too hard and the mother and son would have a poor night’s rest.

In spite of this, he did not voice his weakness. Instead, he hoped that Edie and Ren would be used to subpar sleeping arrangements and until tomorrow, they would be well. Upon coming into his quarters with Edie and the children, she told Ren to go find his jimjams from his bag and change for the night as Severus worked on altering the couch.

“I’m goin' ter sleep with Lottie!” he declared, startling Severus, but also Edie it seemed.

She, unlike him, relaxed after a moment. “Tha’s fine,” she said. Her eyes flickered to Severus. Uncertainty lurked there. “Right? They’re little.”

He nodded his head. He and Lily had fallen asleep rather innocently a few times as young children outside in the grass during hot, muggy days in Cokeworth. Two children about their age should sleep about the same in Lottie’s bed.

“Do you mind Lottie?” he questioned the girl. It was her opinion that mattered the most in the end. It was her bed Ren was attempting to invade (Severus suspected he just wanted to be able to study the room and figure out what he could have in his own bedroom come tomorrow).

“No!” she answered with a cheery smile. “I sleep with my sisters and Darla lots of time.” The girl started to giggle. “Once, when I stayed with the Bones for a sleepover an’ we were all in Susan’s room, we fell asleep on the floor playin’ some Muggle game called Trouble and I woke to George almost on top of me!”

He did his best not to flinch at the name. That was no doubt one of the dead Bones boys. Severus knew that while neither Lottie or Ren noticed the way his hands twitched at the mention of the mate’s, Edie had. Her eyes were flecked heavily with gold. He ignored it in favor of giving Ren and Lottie a closed-lip smile.

“Get changed,” he ordered.

The two dashed off, Lottie for her room, Ren for his bag near the mouth of the corridor that led to his own bedroom and the quarter’s loo. Severus wondered if when they expanded the place tomorrow another loo would be a good idea. It was in his experience, the younger the child, the harder it was for them to “hold it”. As the pair busied themselves with dressing for the night, Edie walked up on his right side.

A wand’s length between them, she said, “Yeh don’t have ter transfigure the sofa. I ain’t tall o’ big.”

“It’s no trouble,” he murmured.

“No,” she asserted. “Yeh got extra quilts?”

He pointed at his old school trunk. “It’s in there,” he explained. “Lottie found it cold her first night as well.”

Edie gave him a less than amused look. “It’s freezin’,” she declared. “Yeh ever think o’ movin’ ter a warmer part o’ the castle?”

He glowered. _This_ again. Edie didn’t know it, but she’d rubbed off in Lottie in some very significant and annoying ways. “No,” he all but snapped. “I prefer being near my classroom and students.”

Edie looked away. “I was jus’ curious,” she replied in an almost sulky tone. 

He held back a sigh and was going to apologize, but Ren appeared in front of them wearing a long-sleeve cotton nightshirt that fell about mid-calve on him. He smiled. “Yeh will tuck us in, won’t yeh?” he demanded.

“Yes,” said Edie, moving to place a hand on the back of her son’s head. Ren squirmed away from Edie and turned his mother’s eyes on Severus. He felt uneasy under the swirling hazel gaze.

With a level of blatant forcefulness only a boy was capable of, Ren said, “I want _yeh_ ter tuck us in.”

“I do not tuck in children,” he replied with crossed arms. At most, he had pulled the covers over Lottie a few times the last few weeks after seeing her off to her bed. That was not tucking a child in he thought. At least it was unlikely it was by Ren’s definition. He cast a look to Edie who was biting her lip, seemingly torn between amusement and nerves. He imagined Edie did quite a lot to help her son to sleep.

Appearing from behind the curtain that separated her room from the lounge in her own yellow nightie with embroidering of pansies around the collar, Lottie puffed out her cheeks at him. “Yes you do!” she yelled. “You did last night and a couple of nights ago too.”

“Is that tucking in?” said Severus in a tone of fake surprise.

Marching over, Lottie took Ren by the hand and said to her brother, “He can too, so don’t worry.” Then, glaring up at him, she said, “It’s not clever to play stupid.”

He blinked, stunned, and Edie, she folded over, laughing. Severus gave all of them a half-hearted scowl, but, in the end, shook his head. As much as he wished she wasn’t, Lottie was correct. It was _not_ intelligent to act otherwise. Severus suspected it was her father, _him,_ who had taught Lottie that. 

He placed a hand on the backs of their necks and gave them a light push toward Lottie’s bedroom. “Let’s go,” he said. “You have both had long days.” Taking them to Lottie’s bed, he peeled back the green quilt covering the bed and ushered in first Lottie, then, Ren to lay down on the blue, yellow-dotted sheets Lottie had insisted on during their trip for necessities when she first arrived. When two sets of eyes, one dark blue, one hazel, were staring up at him from the bed, he brought the covers over them and let the hem rest just beneath their chins.

“Good night,” he said to the two. “Sleep well.”

Lottie began to curl up on her side and tuck her cheek beneath the cover, but Ren glared up at Severus. “I need my swee’ dreams kiss,” he whined.

Severus stiffened. From behind, he heard Edie giggle. Severus looked over his shoulder to see she was standing in the doorway of Lottie’s room with a smile. He hadn’t realized she followed the three of them. Stepping into the room, Edie said to Severus, “I can handle tha’.” Brushing past him, the witch stooped down and bestowed a kiss on the crown of Ren’s head, then, after a beat of hesitation, Lottie’s as well. “Swee’ dreams,” she whispered.

“Swee’ dreams,” echoed back the children as Ren followed Lottie’s lead and turned on his side toward his sister. Edie stood back up and, for a moment, they stared together at the sleeping siblings. 

Severus wondered if this was what it was like to be a father. It was… warm. Encompassing. A pit formed in his stomach. Now that he knew the feeling, what would it be like when Lottie returned home and Edie and Ren went back to Knockturn Alley? How did one go from being a parent to childless?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And that wraps up Edie and Ren's first day at Hogwarts! Thoughts? 
> 
> Thank you for reading and please give me your impressions with a comment and/or kudo please :)


	9. Introductions

In the late morning, Severus's quarters become a center of activity for the second time in less than a month. The children, of course, were awed and delighted to watch himself, McGonagall, and Flitwick take out the quarter's back wall and shape the large unused classroom behind it into two bedrooms. As Severus and Flitwick worked on using the stones from his old wall to create a new one between what will be Ren's room and Edie's, yet more guests appeared in his quarters.

This time, it was the headmaster and Madam Pomfrey. Severus finished the segment of the wall he was working on before putting his wand back up his sleeve and approaching the pair. “To what do I owe the pleasure today, sir?” he asked the old man.

The headmaster smiled in a simple way that Severus did not trust. “I thought I would meet our new guests.” His smile turned ever so slightly strained. “I was informed of their presence through the portraits yesterday afternoon.”

He crossed his arms. Severus was going to say something less than kind about having Lottie foisted on him in the first place, so it was the headmaster’s fault he had unexpected guests in the castle, but, before Severus could, the children and Edie appeared around him.

“Yer Albus Dumbledore!” yelled Ren, vibrating beneath the firm hand of Edie who held him, and Lottie, by the back of their necks.

The headmaster turned his smile on the boy and it became much more natural and true. “Yes, that is correct,” he said. Stooping slightly, the headmaster offered his hand to Ren and asked, “Would you care to introduce yourself?”

Ren wasted not a second. His little hand in Dumbledore’s, he shook them and said, “I’m Ren, sir!”

“Owen,” corrected Edie behind him. “Yer _Owen_.”

Ren looked up at his mother with a pout. “Yes, but I go by Ren.”

“Ah,” said the headmaster as he released the boy’s hand. He then lifted his hand and offered it in turn to Edie. “Hello, Mrs.…?”

“Miss,” corrected the witch, cringing. “I’d very much like tha’ yeh just call me Edie.”

“But yer _Edith_ ,” piped up Ren in mimicry of his mother’s previous correction.

Hazel eyes suddenly bled of all their golden warmth, Edie’s hand moved from Ren’s neck to his ear, which she gave a none too gentle twist. “Yeh mind yer cheek!” she scolded. “This is yer future headmaster, boy.”

The other professors seemed alarmed by Edie’s quick rebuke of her son. Severus thought Ren was getting off lightly, all things considered. His own mother would have slapped him for correcting her in front of such a prominent wizard like the headmaster. Instead of being cowed by her punishment, Ren just ripped his ear away from his mother’s fingers and grumbled, “Okay! Sorry!”

His apology, as lackluster as it was, appeared to satisfy Edie as she moved her hand back down to his neck in an almost caressing motion. Wearing a smile, the witch said to the headmaster, “It’s nice ter meet yeh, sir.” Smile turning mischievous, she said, “Yer chocolate frog card is Ren’s favorite.”

The headmaster chuckled at the compliment and said, “Is that so?”

Ren bobbed his head. “Yes! Yeh defeated dark wizards.” Eyes solemn, he imparted to Albus, “I wanna do tha’ when I grow up.” Expression turning extremely contemptuous for such a small boy, he said, “I’m gonna make Mum’s uncle who burnt her an’ then the wizards who hurt her now when they’re just supposed ter watch her dance sorry.”

“Owen!” hissed Edie, clearly shocked and embarrassed by her son’s words. Once again, however, the professors were struck speechless by the mother and son. Lottie, however, was staring at her brother in fascination.

“I think you’ll be a Gryffindor, Ren,” Lottie said to her brother. “You have to be awfully brave to want to fight so many bad wizards.”

Poppy, who Severus still didn’t understand why she was in his quarters, seized on Lottie’s remark with ferocity. “Brave _and_ healthy,” she said, drawing the attention of the pair. “Ren, dear, would you let me give you a little checkup? I’m Hogwarts’s nurse and I’d like to make sure you’re in tip-top fighting shape.”

“I feel fine,” said the boy, giving the matron a dubious look.

With patience built from decades of dealing with unruly students, Poppy nodded at the boy and smiled. “I have no doubts,” she said. “It’s just something I do with all of Hogwarts’s new occupants.”

That was a lie. Poppy did not give all who came to Hogwarts a check-up. However, Severus understood why she wanted to look at Ren, possibly at Edie as well. They came from Knockturn Alley and while not necessarily ill, likely could do with nutrient potions and possibly something for some kind of pest, like lice. Severus hoped they didn’t have lice. He’d hate to have to do a deep-cleanse of his quarters later.

Ren turned his gaze to his mother, who nodded at him. “It’s fine, Ren,” assured Edie. “I’ll be with yeh.”

Poppy twisted her lips. “Well…”

“Wha’?” demanded Edie. “Yeh don’t want me with him?” It was clear to Severus Edie was affronted by this and understood exactly why she was being excluded from his check-up. Her eyes met him. “Yeh go with him,” she demanded. “Ren shouldn’t have ter be alone with a stranger.”

Severus raised an eyebrow. She didn’t want her son with a stranger, but wasn’t that what Severus was? They had known each other all of a day. He knew better than to point out this fact. “Of course,” he agreed instead.

The matron pushed a smile across her face and said, “Brilliant. Why don’t we step into your room for a couple of minutes, Severus?”

He wasn’t exactly pleased with the idea of Poppy and Ren being in his bedroom, but he nodded. Moving toward his room, he gestured for them to follow. “Come,” he said. 

Edie let go of her son and Ren ran to grab onto Severus’s sleeve as they and Poppy moved down the short corridor toward his bedroom. Once they reached his door, he let them in. Severus pointed at his bed and told the boy, “Sit there.”

Ren hurried to comply as Poppy stepped into his bedroom and closed the door behind them. Once it was just the three of them, Poppy came and sat down on the opposite side of the bed from Ren. Affixing an attentive expression on her face, Poppy said to Ren, “Before I run my spell over you, may I ask just a few questions?”

Ren nodded his head.

“How old are you, Ren?” started Poppy.

“Seven,” he said. “But I’ll be _eight_ at the end o’ the month.”

Poppy made a noise of interest. “My, aren’t you getting big?” she said. “Is your birthday Halloween or just very close?”

“It’s the 29th,” said Ren, looking slightly more at ease as he realized just how benign Poppy’s questions were. “I think I like that,” he offered without prompting.

“Oh?” replied Poppy, urging Ren to explain.

The boy’s eyes flickered to him and Severus nodded, letting Ren know it was fine to say what he wanted. 

Buoyed by the assurance, Ren nodded. “Yeah!” he said. “If it were Halloween, no one would say happy birthday or anythin’, they’d all only talk about Voldemort bein’ dead an’ celebratin’ Harry Potter.”

“You say his name?” replied Poppy, eyes slightly wide and Severus hated to admit it, but he was resisting the very strong urge to grab his marked arm.

Ren shrugged his shoulders. “I know it was supposed ter summon him o’ somethin’,” he said. “But Mum an’ everyone else always says tha’ it doesn’t matter wha’ we call him ‘cause he’d never come ter Knockturn Alley. Voldemort didn’t care about us.”

Poppy looked over at him and he gave a small shrug of his shoulders. Ren wasn’t wrong. The lord had used Knockturn Alley to his benefit back during the war. While occasional skirmishes happened on the street, true attacks had been nonexistent. It was already a seedy part of the magical world and it was easy to blend in their activities among the typical going-on of the area. If the lord had decided to wreck the place, hiding their colluding in plain sight would have become more difficult.

“I see,” said Poppy finally. “May I ask another question?”

“Sure.”

“Your mother… Does she ever get cross and hurt you?”

Ren bristled. “No!” he snapped. “People hurt _her_!” he snarled. “An’ she comes home from dancin’ an’ then it’s up ter me ter fix her tea and put salve on her bruises an’ dittany on her cuts.”

“You sound like you love your mother very much,” murmured Poppy in a soothing tone. 

The boy calmed slightly and said, “Yeah. She’s a really good one,” he explained, eyes flickering between them. “I know not all mums are,” he told Poppy and Severus. “In the flat down the hall from home lives my mate Abbie an’, sometimes, her mum’ll make her get up in the middle o’ the night an’ kiss men’s’ willies.” Ren’s eyes were old and scarred as he added, “Abbie doesn’t like it an’ cries, but her mum doesn’t care an’ says if she doesn’t then her an’ her lil’brother will starve.”

Severus couldn’t look at Ren or at Poppy and her wet eyes anymore. He was perfectly aware of the horrors in the world, had been a victim to some of them in his own youth. However, knowing Ren also knew of them, infuriated Severus. He was too young. Too loved. He didn’t deserve to know such things when Edie was obviously doing everything she could to protect him and foster a sense of love in the world instead of hate.

“I’m sorry your friend’s mummy does that to her,” said Poppy in a voice that cracked. “It’s not right,” she asserted.

“No,” agreed Ren. “I’m gonna make Abbie’s mom pay when I’m big too,” he said.

“You don’t have to punish everyone, dear,” Poppy told the boy and Severus just barely smothered his snort. “You could try and change the things that make mummies do that to their daughters and make men hurt your mummy instead.”

Severus finally looked at the two, trying to get an idea of what Ren thought of Poppy’s words. He didn’t seem convinced. He was young, however. Perhaps when he was older it would be easier to explain how there was more than one way to stop the horrors that happened to those in Ren’s life. “Maybe,” said the boy, clearly trying to appease Poppy, but still set on his own idea.

The matron sighed, knowing now was not the time to press. Instead, she drew her wand and said, “I would like to do a few spells on you to check your health, is that all right?”

“Yes,” agreed Ren with clear interest. He watched with avid interest as Poppy waved around her wand and mouthed the spells Poppy spoke, testing the taste of them on his own tongue.

When she was done, Poppy smiled at Ren. “A nutrient potion with one meal a day is all you need,” she declared. “That will get your vitamin levels were they ought to be and in a couple of weeks I’ll do another check-up to make sure they have risen correctly.”

Ren smiled. “Okay.”

Poppy tilted her head. “How would you like a licorice wand?” she questioned.

Ren bounced on Severus’s bed. “Please!” he begged. The boy then bit his lip. “Do yeh have two? If I have one, Lottie should get one also.”

“My, aren’t you sweet?” said the matron as she pulled two licorice wands from her smock pocket. She looked over at him, smirking slightly. “I don’t suppose you would like one as well, would you?”

“I’m fine,” said Severus with a roll of his eyes.

As Ren took a bite of his and brought the other close to hold, Poppy told the boy, “When Severus was a student, licorice wands were his favorite.”

Severus glared at the matron as Ren looked at him. “Really?”

“Yes,” said Poppy, ignoring his hard stare. 

Ren smiled widely. “I like ‘em too.”

Severus didn’t know why, but he felt fond of the boy for the declaration. 

-O-

Shortly before dinner time, the additions to Severus’s quarters were finished. On the back wall of his lounge room were two new doors. One lead to Edie’s bedroom and the other, Ren’s. They were not terribly large, but the mother and son had no complaints. 

In fact, all they had been able to do was gush at the professors after each new detail was added to their respective bedrooms. Ren had been delighted to get a charmed window that showed him the quidditch pitch like the one in Lottie’s bedroom. Edie had been made happy by Flitwick simply turning her walls a cheery yellow. 

The professors, who had been a little leery of Edie initially after her chastisement of Ren, warmed up to her by the end, and Poppy and McGonagall even embraced her as they left. 

“I will bring you this lovely painting of a meadow I know of on the fourth floor of the castle tomorrow,” promised Professor McGonagall. “It will be a beautiful addition to your room.”

“Thank yeh,” said Edie as she pulled away from the hug the witch had pulled her into. “I appreciate yeh goin’ ter the trouble.”  
“Oh, but it isn’t!” assured the transfiguration professor. “Goodbye, see you all tomorrow,” she said to them and with one last farewell wave, left Severus’s quarters. The portrait slid into place, covering his room’s entrance and Severus relaxed finally. 

“I think dinner in tonight is in order,” he declared.

Ren whooped. “Can I eat in me room?” he asked.

“We all can,” suggested Edie with a laugh and a look toward him. “We’ll picnic on the floor,” she said. “But only ternight.”

Severus nodded and glanced over to the table he and Lottie had been eating at the last few weeks. It only had his chair and hers. He would have to fix that in time for breakfast. “Yes,” said Severus, backing up the mother. “Bedrooms are not a place food should typically be eaten except for on occasions such as this.”

-o-O-o-

Monday morning and his third-year Gryffindor and Slytherin class brought Severus more aggravation than he cared for. As when he’d come to his first class after acquiring Lottie, the students were dead silent at his entry. As he walked up to his desk and put down his supplies for the day, their eyes all watched him with wide, bated intensity. Like he had before, he ignored them in favor of waving his wand at the piece of chalk and compelling it to start scrawling the day’s plans down on the board behind him.

When the piece of chalk started on the second to last thing on today’s agenda, a student’s hand finally shot up. Severus was both aggravated and unsurprised it was a Gryffindor student. “Yes?” he called out to them.

“Professor, sir,” said the student, a girl. Ms. Escott. She was a stand-out student in more ways than one. She had a very keen eye according to many, Aurora, in particular, gushed about how well the girl did at spotting stars, planets, and other astronomical anomalies. 

She was also by far one of Hogwarts’s shortest students at just over four feet tall. If her slightly pointed ears didn’t give it away, there would be whispers all over the school about what blood besides that of witches and wizards ran through her. Severus thought her rather lucky. She was several generations removed from the indiscretion that led to the introduction of goblin blood into the Escott line. Ms. Escott, while a little odd-looking at a glance, did not take too strongly after her goblin ancestor, and, therefore, was quite accepted by the majority of her peers.

“Yes, Ms. Escott?” he said.

The girl flushed pink, suddenly shy under his gaze. “I saw— Heard that—” she babbled to Severus’s irritation.

Sneering at the girl, he snapped, “Be honest, Ms. Escott, or do not bother.”

“…Heard that there is a witch and boy staying in the castle now,” she mumbled from behind her long, brown hair that had fallen in front of her face at his chastisement.

He held back a sigh. He wondered how little he would be able to share this time. “You heard correctly,” he said to her, but the class at large as well.

“Who are they?” called out a different student, one of Ms. Escott’s Gryffindor housemates.

Shifting his attention to the source of the question he saw it was Mr. Wood, one of the students on Gryffindor’s quidditch team. “They are Lottie’s minder and her son, Mr. Wood.”

“Why did you get a minder?” asked the boy. “I thought Madam Pomfrey took care of her.”

He couldn’t help but glare over in the direction of his Slytherins. He knew many students had visited Hogwarts’s infirmary over the last few weeks and no doubt saw Lottie, but it was among his snakes the third-year students’ biggest gossips laid. “It is not any of your business, Mr. Wood!” he bit out.

From his Slytherins, one of the duller boys shouted, “Was she unruly?”

“I will have you shut your mouth _now_ Mr. Flint,” he scolded.

As he was glaring at Flint and cowing him into submission, a girl’s voice rang out, “She’s probably as sour as him! I heard they’re _family_ —”

“—Twenty points from Gryffindor, Ms. Escott!” Severus yelled out, not taking his eyes off Flint as he waited for the boy to finally break and look away. He did so just as Ms. Escott squawked:

“What? Farley said that!”

Had she? Well, it was not his fault he had been mistaken. Teenage girls all sounded far too alike in Severus’s opinion and the Gryffindors would have done something worthy of losing twenty points soon enough anyway.

“I will have no more talk of Lottie or her minder and minder’s son!” he thundered, slapping a hand on his desk for emphasis. Several of the students jumped in their seats. Severus ignored it in favor of picking up his copy of the textbook the children were using. Opening it up, he told them, “If you are all done, I will have you turn to page two hundred and twelve in your textbooks. Today we are brewing…”

-o-O-o-

In the afternoon, as Severus was busy straightening his classroom after a day of teaching, a tall shadow came to fill his classroom’s doorway. He finished straightening the parchments on his desk before he looked up. When he did, he saw it was one of his colleagues, Quirinus Quirrell. 

Quirinius had been a year behind him in school and a Ravenclaw. During their school days, he’d paid the man little attention as Quirinus kept to himself mostly and from the student rumors then, was also gay. Severus didn’t know if it was true, but he had never seen him with a woman or heard him talk about any.

The man had become more interesting after school when Severus figured out he was also one of Voldemort’s followers. In fact, he had almost like him then. Doing missions with Quirinus had been downright tolerable compared to doing assignments with the likes of Pyrites and the Lestranges. 

He had at times wanted to ask what drew him to the cause. Especially once Quirinus had been singled out and punished once for being too weak-willed. Severus had never gotten the chance before the war’s end and, since Quirinus joined Hogwarts’s staff two years ago as their Muggle studies professor, hadn’t mustered up the courage to ask since. 

Stepping out from behind his desk and walking toward his colleague, Severus said, “Hello, Quirinus, what has brought you by?”

The other man’s eyes skittered away from Severus as he reached into his purple robes and brought out a shrunken cardboard box. Severus watched with interest as the muggle studies professor brought out his wand and tapped the box. It turned to three times its size and Severus was able to see that on the side of the box, in black marker, “toy soldiers” was inscribed on it.

“I thought the little boy you have might like these,” he said in the soft tone he typically used when not teaching a class of students. 

Severus took the box and unfolded one of the flaps. Inside he saw the toy soldiers were the traditional wood kind with painted red coats and black hats. Severus also thought he spied what might be toy canons and little flags. It was a thoughtful gift. Ren would be extremely excited to play with these.

Severus also liked that the boy would see Severus had been right about his colleagues wanting to spoil him.

Putting the flap back down, he gave what he hoped was a sufficiently grateful expression to Quirinus. “Thank you,” he said. “Ren will enjoy these.”

The other man nodded and began to fidget with his now empty hands. “I know they aren’t quite as exciting as magical toy figurines, but—”

“—Ren and his mother have not been very fortunate in the past,” Severus said, cutting off the man’s deprecation of his kindness. “A set of toy soldiers, Muggle they may be, will be greatly enjoyed.”

His colleague relaxed. “I thought about giving you them to you when you got your girl, but I didn’t reckon she would like them.”

Severus almost smirked. “Oh, I’m sure Lottie will be intrigued by the novelty of Muggle toy soldiers,” he said. “However, it will be a short-lived interest.”

Quirinus returned is smirk with a smile. “My Pureblooded cousins were the same,” he said. “They’d visit my family for a week in the summer when we were all growing up and for the first day would hardly let me play with my own toys, but by the next, were whinging for their own magical toys they had back home.”

Severus snorted. “Why am I not surprised?” he said. “I certainly have no love for the Muggle world, but I often think I was better off growing up there. I was made to work harder at everything — from sweeping my family’s stoop with a non-magic broom to simply making my toy rocket fly by my own hand instead of by a charm already placed on it.”

Quirinus’s lapis blue eyes took on a faraway appearance. He nodded in an absent way, voice fond as he said, “I agree with you. It taught me lessons I don’t know that I would have learned otherwise.”

He almost thought to continue the conversation but bit his tongue. It wouldn’t due for Severus to sound too favorable of the Muggle world. The war was over, Voldemort was gone, and the Death-Eaters disbanded, but he could still find himself in trouble if he wasn’t careful. Quirinus, as an ex-Death-Eater himself, was dangerous to be too honest with, even if he has always seemed to be innocuous. 

“Thank you again for the soldiers,” Severus told the man. Hefting the box a little higher in his arms instead of shrinking the box down or charming it to levitate, he said, “I will take these to Ren right away.”

Quirinus stepped out of his classroom’s doorway. “You’re welcome,” he said with a small grin. “Have a nice afternoon, Severus,” said the man as he raised a hand in good-bye.

Severus returned the gesture. “You as well,” he said. “Quirinus, if you ever need a small favor do just let me know.”

It was only fair he give something back for this kindness.

The offer appeared to surprise Quirinus, as the younger blinked at him. However, his grin only seemed to strengthen and he nodded. “I will,” he promised before leaving and soon, leaving Severus’s sight.

He looked behind him at his empty classroom. The chairs were not all pulled in to their desks and there was an open cupboard door where the student supply of vials were kept. He should go back in and finish straightening. Instead, Severus closed the classroom door behind him and began in the direction of his quarters.

Severus would rather not waste time on such inconsequential things when he could instead dedicate it to showing the children the toy soldiers.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading!


	10. A Day at Hogwarts

Edie watched on as Ren and Lottie trailed after Severus, demanding more attention from the clearly exasperated wizard as he attempted to put on his robe and leave. Finally dressed, Severus smoothed a hand over Lottie’s loose hair and then patted the top of Ren’s head. He muttered a farewell and turned quickly, disappearing out of his quarters as the children yelled in chorus at his back, “Goodbye!”

When she heard the portrait slide back into place, Edie rose from her place at the quarter’s dining table and called to the children, “All right, Lottie, Ren, come here.”

The pair didn’t need to be told twice and were in front of Edie before she hardly had the time to stand and smooth the wrinkles from the tan-colored skirt she’d chosen to wear for the day. 

Blue eyes brimming with excitement, Lottie asked, smiling, “What are we going to do today, Edie?”

She felt her own mouth turn upward to mirror the girl’s grin. “Firs’ we’re going ter have yeh practice yer penmanship,” she declared.

Ren made a low, whining noise of disappointment and draped himself around her middle. “Wha’? Mum, we’re at  _ Hogwarts _ !” he complained.

Not the least bit bothered by her son’s strop, she gently extracted him from her front and stood him back up next to Lottie. The girl, unlike Ren, didn’t seem terribly put-out at the thought of lessons. Edie wondered if that would change once it became routine and she’d been around for more than a couple of days. Only time would tell, she supposed.

“Yeh still need ter know how ter write,” she told her son. Rubbing a hand across her chin, Edie was made to realize that writing was going to become even more important for her son. Before, she’d just wanted to have legible handwriting for the sake of communication. Now, it would be a part of whatever grades he got on essays and exams as a student of Hogwarts. 

She decided to explain this to Ren, mostly to prepare him for the fact this was going to become an everyday part of their lessons instead of something they practiced a couple of times a week. “Even more now tha’ yer going ter be a student here,” she said.

“Ergh,” grumbled Ren even as he appeared to concede to her explanation. Walking around her, he sat back down in the chair he’d used at breakfast. Lottie quickly followed his example and sat down in her own chair. 

As Edie went to search the desk set up near Lottie’s bedroom for quills, ink, and parchment, the girl called, “What’re we going to copy?”

Edie pursed her lip as she pulled out two black-feathered quills from one drawer and a bottle of blue ink from the drawer beneath. “Well…” she murmured. Usually, she’d find old newspapers and the like abandoned outside while working and bring them home. They had plenty to copy and plenty for Ren to read typically. She wondered if she called out to a house-elf that they would bring her a paper for the children.

Lottie, who had picked up on her hesitation, placed her face in her hands and looked to the shelves of books and other bobbles lining the wall across from where she sat. “My Edie has us copy potions recipes from Sev’s books,” she told Edie.

As she came back to the children and handed them each a quill, Edie considered the suggestion. It was a decent one. The content of a potions recipe wouldn’t be too difficult she imagined. It would be useful too. If Ren did a decent job copying a potion, she could keep it as well. Edie didn’t have a potions set-up at home, but, maybe, after all of this, it could be possible. They could make their own potions more cheaply than buying them, she knew that. Now, she would have the knowledge to do it. “Tha’s an idea,” she said brightly as she placed a piece of parchment in front of each child and then the rest in the middle of the table.

Going over to the shelves of books, Edie stared at them for a while. There were so many. Which one would be good to get a copy of a potion from? Edie thought potions meant for cleaning and healing would be the most useful to have. Seemingly aware of her dilemma, Lottie appeared at her side, startling her. She hadn’t heard the child get up.

The girl smiled at her before she pointed at a red book that appeared to have a dark leather strip to keep it bound close. “You should pick that one!” she told Edie. “It has lots of healing potions.” Little face serious, she explained to Edie, “My Sev likes us to practice writin’ those. He says it’s good that we get familiar with useful stuff like that.”

Edie reached up and pulled the text. She felt satisfied and a warm feeling for the Severus that Lottie called Sev. It seemed they had similar ideas about what children should learn. She wondered if Severus would agree with them. Most likely he would. As a potions professor, he had to know what nonsense it was the price on some potions one could buy pre-made were. 

As she flipped through the pages of the book, searching for something useful, she declared, “Then yeh’ll copy from this one.” She stopped on a page listed the instructions and ingredients needed for potion to cure boils. Perhaps not the most useful, but it would be a good start. She could find a better one for tomorrow. “Here, this is the cure fer boils,” she said, handing it down to Lottie to take to the table.

Lottie’s wriggling fingers took the text with more eagerness than Edie was used to seeing from a child when it came to lessons. She then trotted over to the table and propped it up just so. “Here you go, Ren,” she said as she plopped back down in her seat and reached for her quill. “I kinda already know this one, so you can have the better view.”

“Thanks,” grumbled her son as he dipped his quill in the bottle of ink she got for them and slowly started to copy down the potion’s name.

Lottie pouted at Ren. “Aw, don’t frown like that!” she whined. Her eyes darted to Edie before she admitted, “I’ve started to miss lessons.”

“Yeh weren’t havin’ lessons with Madam Pomfrey?” asked Edie, a little upset. Surely as a part of a  _ school  _ she knew how important it was to make sure children were always learning things?

Lottie tensed, eyes big. “Er, well, at first I don’t think they thought I’d be here this long?” she offered and Edie gave a grudging nod. She supposed she could understand that. If they’d initially thought Lottie would only be at Hogwarts a few days, setting up a lesson plan likely seemed silly. However, as the weeks dragged on… Why hadn’t she or Severus done anything to remedy the situation? 

“I started readin’ a lot while I’m with her in the last week or so too!” piped up the girl. “So, I’ve been teachin’ myself.”

“Hm,” said Edie. She still wasn’t happy, but she was glad another her from a different reality had still managed to instill the necessity of learning in Lottie.

The girl seemed to take her answer for disapproval and her shoulders fell along with her face. “Sorry.”

“Yeh, have nothin’ ter apologize fer,” assured Edie as she approached the children and laid a head on the top of Lottie’s head. As she began to thread her fingers through her waves, she told Lottie, “This was somethin’ Sev’rus should o’ handled.”

“Okay,” said Lottie, though, she did not sound entirely convinced. Edie supposed that was fine for now. She’d see soon enough as the day went on and she treated her as an equal to her son without any hint of anger or disappointment.

Her eyes drifted over to Ren, who had his tongue between his teeth as he copied down the recipe with big letters. She sighed when she saw he’d smeared the name of the second ingredient as he was writing the third. She gently lifted his wrist and reached into the pocket of her robe for the handkerchief she kept in it. Edie said, “Ren, watch yer hand, yer smearin’ the ink.”

“I didn’t mean ter smear it!” he cried, jerking away from her hold, eyes big.

Edie did her best to control her anger and keep her expression calm. “It’s fine,” she assured her son.

Eyes still too big and scared, he pleaded, “Don’t make me write with me other hand, it’s too hard.”

If she could use her wand to do it, she’d curse Annette. Her son shouldn’t be so frightened over something as inconsequential as smearing his ink. “Ren, I won’t,” she promised.

Lottie, who had been watching their exchange with a puzzled expression, asked, “Why would Edie do that?”

Ren, after a clear internal debate, broke his gaze from Edie to look at Lottie and say, “Nan Annette always did.” Putting down his quill, he put his hand behind his back, miming what used to be done to him, and said, “She’d bind me hand ter me ter make sure I couldn’t cheat.”

“That’s awful!” yelled Lottie, little face furious. Edie felt vindication. She  _ knew  _ that wasn’t how one taught children to write neatly, but it was a relief to know a little girl who was being raised by good people agreed.

“It is,” Edie said, affirming Lottie’s words to her son who seemed a little less worried now. She reached again for the boy’s hand. “Now, Ren, let me clean yer hand an’ yeh can get back ter work.” Giving both him and Lottie a stern look, she said, “I want this recipe copied three times an’ then we’ll find yeh two something ter read from for a bit.”

-o-O-o-

“Severus!” Lottie cried in bright excitement. Abandoning the dolls she had been playing with on the rug, she ran for the entrance to Severus’s quarters. Ren, who was tucked up against her side, watching Edie as she carefully patched a pair of his pants, turned his face up toward her, questioning.

She nodded at her son and he left the sofa to join Lottie in greeting Severus. As Edie finished the stitch she was working on, she watched out of the corner of her eye as the children and Severus spoke.

The wizard appeared to be in a relatively agreeable mood as his shoulders were relaxed and in his hand was a cardboard box. “What’s that?” asked Lottie as she attempted to pull on a loose flap near the top.

Severus simply lifted it a little higher. Not addressing the girl, he instead turned to her son and said, “Do you recall how I said the professors would be quite generous with you, Ren?”

Edie frowned and put down the pants she’d been working on. What did that mean?

Ren seemed to know perfectly what Severus meant, however as he began to bounce on the balls of his feet. “It’s fer me?” he asked as Severus finally lowered the box and placed it in front of her son’s feet.

“Yes,” said the wizard as Edie got up and walked over to join the three peering at the box. 

Lottie, who was circling the box, pointed at the side facing toward Severus. “It says toy soldiers,” she told them.

Severus seemed to be amused by the observation. “That it does,” he said as Ren finally got together the courage to open the box, which Severus allowed. Her son fell to his knees and gasped. A moment later, he pulled out a pair of little wooden soldiers. They looked like an old-fashioned kind to Edie, but she couldn’t be sure. She’d only ever seen the occasional picture of a British soldier over the years.

“These are wicked!” her son cried in delight as he reached in and pulled out a stick with a British flag attached to it.

Severus reached down and picked the box up again. The children trailing after him, he placed it down on the rug near Lottie’s dolls. “My colleague, Quirinus, thought you may enjoy them.”

“Tell him thank yeh,” said Edie, giving her son dagger-eyes. He should have said so already.

Ren nodded his head. “Yeah!” he exclaimed. “Thank him.”

“You should write a note,” declared Lottie. “That’s always what my Sev had us do when people gave us stuff.”

Severus raised an eyebrow at the girl. “Oh?” he said. “You’re only mentioning this now, I see, when the the gift is not for you.”

Lottie flushed and turned a guilty pout to her toes. “I forgot,” she mumbled.

Edie decided to step in and seize on the idea. “We can make tha’ our writin’ assignment tomorrow.”

“Oh?” said Severus, looking at her with a raised eyebrow.

Edie went to the dining table and picked up one of the discarded, copied recipes from earlier. “The children need ter work on their writin’ skills fer Hogwarts,” she told him. Then, a little passive-aggressively added, “Lottie should o’ been doin’ this long before I came inter the picture.”

Severus’s face first became one of shock before settling into distaste. “I suppose,” he agreed with no small amount of annoyance. “It was, unfortunately, not the most pressing matter on my mind when it came to her.”

Edie crossed her arms. “Hmph.”

Severus turned his attention to the piece of parchment in her hand. “May I see?”

“It’s one Lottie did,” she explained as she gave it to him. 

His eyes turned a little soft in the corners. “It’s legible,” he said. 

Lottie, who had followed them over as Ren continued to inspect his new toys on the rug, smiled brightly up at the wizard. “Thanks!” she chirped. “It was  _ my  _ idea we copy a healin’ recipe.”

“Heal _ ing _ ,” corrected Severus absently as he turned his attention to the table and began to inspect the rest of their work from the day. After writing, she’d called for a house-elf to deliver a newspaper of some kind. Ren was most used to reading from one and she’d felt most confident the children would find it easier to read an advice column from it rather than some complicated magical theory on casting spells during specific times of the day from a textbook.

After reading, she’d put together a few times and division tables together for the children to work on together. Lottie had solved more than Ren, but she’d expected that would be the case. Lottie was a little older, and, Edie suspected, had more dedicated lessons than Ren. Once they’d done that, she’d gone through Severus’s books until she found one that sounded like a history text. It had been, though, she’d been surprised to find it was a Muggle history book about ancient Roman generals and emperors.

Edie hadn’t realized Severus had an interest in Muggle things. He seemed so…  _ Wizardly _ . It wasn’t hard to hide a Muggle background, but Edie knew those who were half or born usually spoke in a way that was slightly off. They used slang that she didn’t know or about things that weren’t magic. Severus hadn’t done either. Yet. Maybe, later, he would as he grew more comfortable with them.

“Maths too?” he said, lifting the sheet of numbers.

She nodded. “I also had ‘em read ter me an’ read a chapter from that book o’ Roman people,” she explained, pointing to where she put it back on the shelf. Lottie and Ren had seemed to like it, tomorrow, she was thinking they may read another chapter. It wasn’t entirely relevant for them to know in the magical world, but it certainly didn’t hurt. Before, the history she’d taught Ren was all just stories she’d heard and knew from family, her own life, and those of their neighbors and strangers alike who’d deigned to share it with her. 

Severus pursed his lips. “Hm,” he said. “That’s not very useful,” he remarked, echoing her own thoughts at her. He cast his gaze over the shelves of books before he pulled one. “This is about the witch hunts, why we have the statute of secrecy,” he told her as he handed it off to Edie. “Read this one to them.”

“After the generals and emperors,” said Edie before she could bite her tongue. Severus frowned at her and she felt herself shrink in. She hadn’t meant to disagree aloud, but now she had and it was clear she’d have to explain herself. “They like it,” she said. “An’ there’ll be plenty o’ time ter learn tha’ too.”

Severus sighed. “Very well,” he said. Turning his attention to Lottie who stood close, but was watching Ren set up some kind of battle scene, he asked, “You haven’t been told about generals and emperors before, have you?”

Lottie looked up at Severus and shook her head. “No.”

Severus stared the girl in the eye for a long moment. Finally, he looked away. “Then you will finish the book and then learn about more useful things.”

Edie was just relieved he hadn’t become cross with her. Smiling, she agreed, “O’ course.”

For a brief moment, he looked as if he might smile back at her. However, he quickly turned away and put the book back on the shelf. Edie memorized where it was. “Did you take them outside today?” asked Severus.

Edie shook her head. 

“That’s fine,” said Severus. He looked over to Ren, who was in the midst of some imaginary war now. “Take them tomorrow,” he ordered. “It will do them well to get fresh air.”

“Yes, all right,” she agreed.

Severus nodded. “That is all,” he said. Then, he glanced around. “Do you… need anything?” he asked, looking at her.

Edie was surprised. She hadn’t thought he cared about her. Just Lottie. Perhaps Ren too, since he was now going to pay for him to be a student of Hogwarts. “No,” she said to Severus. “I’m fine.”

He dipped his chin. “If you are sure,” he said.

Lottie, who’d spent a long while not being the center of Severus’s attention, started to pull at the sleeve of his robe. “Can  _ we  _ go out?” she asked. “I wanna be with you.”

“Want to,” he corrected. Then, almost hesitantly, offered, “It is nearly dinner time. Would you care to join me for a meal in the Great Hall.” He then glanced over to Ren. “He is welcome to come as well,” he said to Edie.

Lottie made a face at this and Edie realized that, perhaps, the girl was missing having Severus’s undivided attention. It almost amused her. They’d been here all of a weekend. She was interested to see what would happen over the coming weeks as they became a more fixed part of her and Severus’s life. Would she become more demanding? Or learn to share? Surely Lottie knew how. The girl said she had several sisters and a young aunt.

“We’ll stay here,” Edie said. “Ren’s playin’ an’ I’m not going ter interrupt him now.”

Severus smirked slightly. “Yes, he seems to be quite enjoying himself,” he remarked. Reaching down, he pulled Lottie’s hand from his sleeve, but as the girl’s face started to droop with a frown, he wrapped his hand around her fingers.

Lottie perked up immediately and Edie felt something close to tenderness for the pair settle in her chest. Severus was not her father, but one could easily be fooled from a glance alone. She wondered if she should tell him not to become too attached. Lottie wasn’t here to stay — he’d told her as much.

Somehow, she suspected it would be pointless. Edie only hoped he wouldn’t have to suffer the loss of losing her alone when it was finally time to send the girl back to her parents. “Call a house-elf when you get hungry,” he said to her. “After dinner, I think Lottie will come with me to help brew a few potions.”

He looked at her. “You helped your Sev brew, haven’t you?” he asked.

Lottie beamed. “I stir!”

“That will be very useful,” said Severus with a graveness that had Edie biting back a giggle.

Tugging at their hands, Lottie said, “Let’s go, Severus.”

“Very well,” he relented. He rolled his eyes at her and she smiled. “We will be back in a couple of hours,” he said. With that, the pair left, leaving her alone with her son.

“Where’d they go?” asked Ren, putting down one of his toy soldiers.

Edie went and sat on the rug next to her son. Smoothing her skirt so it covered legs in a decent manner, Edie said, “They’ll be havin’ dinner tergether.” Ren’s brows furrowed and Edie reached over to smooth them with her thumb. “An’ yeh an’ me are goin’ ter have some time just the two o’ us.”

The wrinkle between Ren’s brows disappeared entirely and he beamed in a way that made Edie’s breath catch. He looked just like Lottie when he smiled. “Okay!” he said. Handing her a soldier, he said, “Will yeh play battle with me?”

She took the soldier. “O’ course,” she agreed. “Explain how ter play.”

Ren nodded. “Well, I’m the good soldiers. So tha’ means yer the bad…”

-o-O-o-

The children were tucked away in their respective beds and, now, it was just Severus and Edie in the lounge area of his quarters. In the nights past, Edie had retired to her own bedroom shortly after putting Ren and Lottie to sleep. Tonight, however, she was feeling just a little bold and had decided to sit on the sofa and finish her patching of Ren’s pants as Severus muttered over student essays at his desk. There were more than a few swear words being tossed around. Edie was glad he’d put off his grading until the children were in bed.

“Are they really tha’ bad?” she called as she put the last touch on Ren’s pants. She also had a pair of socks to fix. 

Severus startled a little. Then, looking over at her, he said, “Some of their abilities to spell leave me mourning for the future of our world.”

Edie chuckled. “Spellin’ ain’t tha’ important,” she said. “I don’t use writin’ hardly any,” she explained. Putting down the pants, she reached into her sewing bag for one of the socks she needed to fix.

“I could just buy new socks for Ren,” said Severus.

Edie shook her head. “Yeh have done more than enough fer us,” she assured him. “Me boy will be a Hogwarts graduate someday. I could have never dreamed any bigger than tha’ before.” As she attached a new thread to her needle, she remarked, “We never did put our deal down in writin’.”

Severus, who’d paused in his grading and now had his hands steepled in front of him almost smirked. “Would you like to do so now?” he asked.

Edie wondered if she was supposed to play coy. Even if she was, she wouldn’t. Not about this. Putting aside her work, she went to his desk and stared Severus in the eyes. “Yes,” she said.

He broke their gaze and picked up his quill. Together, they drafted the agreement. When done, he said, “We will take this to Dumbledore tomorrow and sign it with him as the witness.” He eyed Edie. “Or would you prefer a different person to be our witness?”

Edie shook her head. Albus Dumbledore was highly respected. She believed with every thread of her being he would make sure this agreement was fulfilled to the letter. “He’s fine,” she said.

Severus put the agreement away, but he did not go back to his essays. Edie didn’t return to her sewing. For a time, they just stared at each other. Edie wanted to say something, but she didn’t know what. Severus seemed to be at just as much a loss as she how to carry on a conversation.

“Well—”

“Perhaps—”

Edie felt heat rise to her cheeks as Severus shut his mouth with an audible sound. After a beat, he said, “You may go first.”

Edie had been planning to tell him she should return to her sewing, but, instead, she found herself asking, “Why do yeh keep wantin’ ter buy us stuff?”

Severus seemed just as surprised the question as she was. For a moment, he seemed to have an internal struggle. Then he said, “I know what it is like to wear things next to rags.” 

“Really?” she said. Somehow, Edie couldn’t see it. He was a professor of Hogwarts. How did someone who’d started with nothing become  _ this _ ? Did he have a benefactor come into his life when he was young? Like he was being now for her son?

He nodded. “Yes,” he said, not elaborating. 

Edie didn’t press. She knew better. If he wanted to say more, he would — when he felt comfortable. Instead, she told Severus, “He doesn’t mind. Ren doesn’t know different.”

Severus pursed his lips. “He will soon,” he said. “Once he is a student…” he shook his head. “I can afford it, Edie.”

Edie was feeling more and more like Severus wasn’t asking to buy her son and her better clothing, but insisting. She wanted to fight him and continue to refuse, but the tone he used when speaking of when Ren became a student had her frightened. If he didn’t have new clothes then, what would happen to her son? 

“Children grow too quickly,” she said. “It would be a waste.”

He snorted. “What I’ve bought for Lottie is a waste,” he said. “She will be going home soon enough.”

Edie leaned in at that. “Oh?”

Severus’s expression turned pensive. “Or, at least, that is what we all hope.”

“Oh,” she replied, a little relieved, but also sad for the girl. She didn’t want to rip Ren away from Hogwarts so soon after coming, but she knew that Lottie needed to be back home, with her real family.

“Edie, don’t argue, a few outfits will be good for Ren,” he insisted. Edie was going to sigh and refuse again, but Severus made a point she didn’t feel she had a rebuttal for. “He should be treated equally to his sister by me, the same way I have asked you to treat them the same.”

She felt herself give in. “Very well,” she said. “A few outfits,” she agreed. “ _ Only  _ for Ren,” she asserted.

He smirked. “Thank you,” he said, showing a lot more grace than she’d expected. Most men would gloat after winning a long argument like he had, but he just looked quietly pleased with himself.

Edie rather liked that.

“I need ter finish my sewing,” she said, looking back to the sofa. “The children will be awake early an’ I’ll need ter be up with ‘em.”

“Hm,” he said, eyes having drifted back to the essay he was grading. Taking it as a dismissal, Edie returned to the sofa. Sitting down, Edie tucked her feet up next to her and brought Ren’s little sock into her lap. While she mended the hole at the toe, Severus’s quill scritched in the background.

The silence between them was companionable.


	11. Trouble in the Library

Edie was nice, but she wasn't her mum anymore than Severus was her dad. It took a week for Lottie to truly feel that difference, but when she did, it forced the air from her lungs. It was at breakfast, Severus had just gone to his classes and it was now her and Edie alone at the quarter's table eating the small array one of Hogwarts's elves brought for them. She was eating a spoonful of porridge while Edie sipped at a cup of tea and read from a newspaper Severus had left behind.

As the two of them ate and drank, Ren appeared from his bedroom. Edie immediately put down the paper and began to fix Ren a cup of tea, pouring first milk and then just enough tea to color it a milky brown into an empty mug. She followed the tea with half a spoon of sugar. When Ren climbed into his chair across from Lottie, the cup was placed in front of him. He didn't so much as glance at the drink before he downed half of it.

When he set the cup down, he didn't pull a face or ask for more sugar. He moved onto serving himself some toast from the plate of it in front of them while Edie started to prepare his porridge in the same sure way she made his tea. Edie didn't do that for Lottie. Upset, she was going to say something about the unfairness and, then, she couldn't so much as make a squeak.

 _Her_ Edie could make her tea like that.

This Edie, as much as she looked, talked, moved, smelled like hers, was not Lottie's mum. She swallowed. She'd known that from the moment she was brought to Hogwarts, but until now she had not _felt_ it. Now that she did… Lottie wanted her to go away. She was an imposter. Lottie had enough of those in the form of Severus, even Poppy. Lottie didn't want another. However, that was when Ren smiled over at her.

Ren wasn't an imposter. He was her brother. If Lottie made Edie go away, so would Ren. She didn't want him to leave. She wanted to get to know him, love him. Even if it was going to hurt to say goodbye later.

So, instead of getting cross or crying, Lottie forced herself to smile back at Ren. Severus wasn't Sev, but he had been trying since nearly the beginning to make sure she was comfortable, and, when he could, happy. Edie had been brought here to meet that goal and, most of the time, she had been happier because she had this Edie. That would continue to be true as long as she had Ren to play and talk to.

"I think we'll go ter the library," said Edie, pulling Lottie from her musings.

Ren, through a mouthful of toast, asked, "Wha' fer?"

"Yeh need books ter read," answered Edie. "When yer a student, that's wha' yeh'll be doin' the most."

Ren pulled a face at that but didn't object. Lottie decided to smile at the witch. "I can pick, right?" she asked.

"Yes," agreed Edie, lips curving upward.

That sounded like a good deal to Lottie.

-o-O-o-

Edie had left Lottie and Ren by a section dedicated to mythologies and folklore of magical cultures across the globe and time. She had instructed both of them to select a text and then to wait for her. She was speaking to Madam Pince a few yards away. As Lottie turned the pages of a book on Chinese folktales, she saw Edie and Madam Pince turn their backs on her and Ren and begin to go in the direction of the library's charms section.

Ren noticed as well as he paused in running his hands over the spines of different texts on African and Middle Eastern myths. Lottie sent her brother a reassuring smile. "She'll be back in a minute," she said.

He puffed out his cheeks. "I'm not worried," he denied.

Lottie almost rolled her eyes but resisted the urge. Instead, she juggled her book to one hand and placed the other on her hip. She was going to make a smart remark, but shadows fell across Ren's face and Lottie was made to look for their origin. She quickly realized it was a trio of young students. Two Slytherins and a Ravenclaw if the trimming of their robes were to be believed.

She turned fully to face the three. "Hi," she said, eyes flickering from one face to the next. There was nothing friendly about their expressions.

Ren inched closer to her.

The three looked between each other then. The Ravenclaw, a fair, reddish-blonde witch, stepped forward and demanded, "We know we haven't been told everything. Who's this kid and the witch he came with _really_?"

Lottie knew something like this would come. Students hadn't been told a lot about her when she arrived. The questions she'd gotten from those Hufflepuffs the last time she was in the library had taught her that. Severus no doubt had said just as little about Ren and Edie. Perhaps even less it seemed to her. Lottie took a deep breath. "My minder and he's her son, R—"

"No she's not!" snapped one of the Slytherins, a black-haired boy. He sounded annoyed but didn't look like it. His eyes were glancing everywhere but at Lottie and seemed almost nervous. Lottie definitely recognized from her Hogwarts, even if she couldn't remember his name right now. "The witch and you look alike," he said in a slightly calmer voice. "Is she your mother?"

"No," answered Lottie without hesitation. Edie wasn't. Not this one, anyway.

The last Slytherin, another boy, who was both tall and round, crossed his arms and said to the girl and boy, "She's lying."

Lottie bristled at the accusation. Darla sometimes complained about how rude a few of her housemates were, but this was Lottie's first time experiencing it herself. "I am not!" she snarled.

The Ravenclaw girl's wide mouth shaped itself into an ugly sneer. "You want to know what _I_ think?"

"No," spat Lottie, her hands balling into fists. She just knew whatever the girl thought about Edie, Ren, and she was terrible and disgustingly wrong.

The Ravenclaw ignored her. Half-turning toward the two boys, she said to them, but also to her and Ren indirectly, "Everyone knows Snape isn't a magical family name. I bet he's the bastard son of a wizard and a Muggle and one of these kids, or the woman, is his half-sibling."

The bigger Slytherin's expressions turned disgusted, while the black-haired boy still wouldn't look at her and Ren. Lottie felt was outraged. They were so _wrong_. Lottie couldn't correct them, though, without telling the truth. For some reason, Severus didn't want anyone to know it either. Lottie wished she could tell them how stupid they all were.

"So which one do you think is related?" asked the bigger Slytherin boy, coming to lean over the two of them. He squinted at first her, then Ren. "The boy's an awful lot darker, but…"

Lottie got between Ren and the Slytherin. She didn't like the look in his eyes at all and she was _not_ going to let him do anything to her little brother. Sticking out her chin, Lottie decided to declare herself Severus's family. He'd already said they were anyway, even if these three were doubtful of his claim now.

"Me," she said. "We're related. _Not_ Ren."

The Ravenclaw girl grinned. "Come on, Adrian," she ordered as she moved in to block her and Ren in on the right. The other Slytherin boy, Adrian, grimaced, but followed the Ravenclaw's lead and closed off their left side. It was then the bigger Slytherin reached into his robe and Lottie realized he was planning to spell her. She acted immediately. She threw herself at the girl, the smallest of the three, and shouted at Ren, "Get Edie!"

As she and the girl tumbled to the floor of the library, Ren raced around them and toward his mum.

"Hey!" yelled Adrian. "Don't hurt her!" he cried, panicked, as he grabbed the back of Lottie's robe to lift her off the girl. Lottie came at him with a fist, hitting him right in the nose.

"Adrian!" yelped the girl as the boy fell back, hands holding the lower half of his face, blood leaking between his thick fingers.

The last of the trio and biggest, snarled, "Oh, that was the wrong move, half-breed."

Lottie tried to run, but he grabbed her arm, yanking it hard enough she felt something pull apart. She didn't scream, though. Instead, she whimpered as her knees buckled beneath her from the pain.

"You leave her alone Bulstrode!" yelled a new voice. Looking up, she saw it belonged to one of those Weasley twins she met before.

The boy, who she now knew was a Bulstrode, bared his buck teeth. "Stay out of this, Weasley," he snapped.

The Weasley twin raised his wand. "Back off," he ordered.

The Bulstrode boy's fingers twitched. Lottie knew what she had to do, she kicked him in the shin. He yelped as he fell to his knees next to her and the Weasley twin used the chance Lottie gave him to disarm Bulstrode and the other two as well.

"Bloody Hell!" yelled Edie as she appeared from behind a bookcase with Ren and Madam Pince.

"Hi, Edie," she returned with a weak smile.

"Wha' in Merlin's name happened here?" she demanded as she approached and swept Lottie off the floor.

"I fought some firsties who were bein' mean and scary," she explained as she rested her head on the witch's shoulder and watched Madam Pince begin to interrogate the other four. Lottie probably should say that Weasley had only been helping her, but she just wanted to hide in Edie's hair a moment. It was strange because her Edie wore it up and away most of the time. This one had let it down this morning, though, before they left Severus's quarters for some reason. Lottie didn't understand why, but she was happy all the same to have somewhere that felt safe to gather her strength back up.

Edie squeezed her tight and Lottie gasped, pain rocketing through her arm. "Wha's wrong?" the witch asked.

"My arm," Lottie whimpered.

Edie inspected it. "I think yeh dislocated yer elbow," she explained.

"Really?"

The witch nodded. "Yes."

"I guess we'll be seeing Poppy," she muttered before wriggling out of Edie's arms. She'd have to lead. Lottie wasn't confident Edie knew or remembered the way there. If she was going to be in charge now, she should probably tell Madam Pince Weasley wasn't deserving of the scolding he was getting too.

Walking over, she gave the old, towering witch's floor-sweeping skirt a tug. She paused in her tirade and looked over the top of the gold frame of her glasses at Lottie. "Yes?" she asked.

"Weasley was only helping me get away from the other three," she explained. "Don't yell too much at him."

Madam Pince nodded. "Of course…" she agreed before giving Lottie one last look-over. She then returned to gesturing and hissing at the four caught firsties. Lottie continued to watch a moment and when Madam Pince pointed specifically at Weasley and then away from her and the rest, she turned around to face Edie.  
"Let's go," she said to the witch who was now clutching her son's hand in one of her own.

-O-

Lottie had just finished having her arm fixed and taken an offered licorice wand from Poppy when the grand doors to the infirmary banged open. In strode Severus, gaze searching. The lines on his forehead smoothed when his eyes landed on Lottie. They disappeared entirely when he looked at Ren and Edie.

"Severus, I was just going to call you," said Poppy, brushing nonexistent wrinkles from her pinafore.

He looked at her, lips shaping into a frown. "One of the Weasley twins, George, I believe, came to my office to notify me that Lottie been taken to the infirmary."

"She's fine," said Edie, standing up from the bed across from Lottie. Ren looked as if he was going to follow his mum's example, but Edie placed a hand on his head, stilling him. Striding over to meet Severus next to the infirmary doors, she told Severus, "There was an incident with some students an' her elbow was dislocated."

His eyes darkened at Edie's words. "Which students?" he demanded. "Were they Gryffindors? Ms. Escott was quite upset about losing her house point last week—"

"—No," cut in Lottie. Tilting her head to the side, she said, "Weasley, _George,_ said one of the boys was named Bulstrode, and the girl in the group, a Ravenclaw, called the other boy Adrian." Severus's face seemed to go at war with the news. There was both rage and shock and it didn't seem to know which expression it should settle in. Lottie continued, "Bulstrode and Adrian were Slytherins, but I bet you probably knew that…"

"They will be punished," assured Severus.

Lottie supposed she was happy to hear that. They should know better than to try and spell others. They were _old_. Yet… She didn't understand _why_ they had wanted to hurt her or Ren. "Okay," she said. "That's a good thing, but…"

Edie seemed to be having the exact same thoughts as Lottie as she demanded, "Why did they hurt her in the firs' place?" Her eyes glinted silver like the blade of a dagger and she asked, tone accusing, "Wha' did yeh do?"

"What did _I_ do?" echoed Severus, affronted and angry.

Poppy cleared her throat. "I think I will step into my office and file my report," she declared. She then reached back into the pocket of her pinafore and pulled out a licorice wand, which was then handed off to a confused-faced Ren. Poppy winked at him. "It's only fair," she said, clearing away his befuddlement and replacing it with a grin before she left the four of them alone in the hall.

Thankfully, in spite of the fact Lottie was pretty sure Professor Kettleburn had taught his classes this morning and there was an illness of something or other going around the castle right now, there were no students in any of the beds. It made it much easier for them all to figure out why those firsties had gone after her and Ren. Edie crossed her arms. "Well?" she persisted, glaring at Severus.

Severus bared his teeth. "Why do you think I did something?"

Edie was not intimidated by Severus's snarling expression. If anything, she seemed to become more stubborn in her pursuit to understand why the incident earlier happened. "There was somethin' odd about the way the children looked at us when we arrived here," she said as Severus's nostrils flared. "I didn't understand then, but I think I do now."

He scoffed at Edie's words. "Oh?" he jeered. "What do you understand?"

"Yeh must not be a professor they feel they can approach if not _one_ came ter ask us who we were an' wha' we were doin' at Hogwarts."

Severus shrugged in a jerky, stiff way. "I don't see how that matters," he muttered.

Edie wasn't put off. In fact, she seemed more invested as she began to pace, eyes on her moving feet. "Not only do they not think they can approach yeh, they want ter hurt yeh."

Lottie looked back at Severus, who's expression was dark. "As if they could," he declared.

She frowned. Maybe they couldn't hurt Severus directly, but those students had thought they could indirectly through her. "The Bulstrode boy was going to spell me. He had his wand in his hand," she told Severus. "I know George Weasley must have told you that part."

He twitched at that and Lottie felt a little better. Severus didn't seem to really know how to say he was sorry or admit to being wrong, but Lottie suspected he felt both all the same. She was then assured she was correct when Severus looked at her with a penetrating gaze and declared, "If he had succeeded, Bulstrode would have regretted it in no time at all." Striding over to her, he placed a hand beneath her chin and lifted it. Lottie was made to stare into his eyes as he proclaimed, "He _will_ regret he tried anything at all."

While she felt a little better, Lottie was more confused than anything at this point. Sev and Edie warned her and her sisters to be careful around students, that some would not like her simply because she was Sev's daughter, but they'd never acted as if she should be wary of being attacked.

"At home, no one has ever tried to spell me or my sisters 'cause of you," she told him. Severus's hand fell away and Lottie pouted. "Even Darla hasn't gotten much trouble from anyone and she's a student now."

"So there has been trouble?" inquired Severus with a raised eyebrow.

Lottie scrunched up her face. "Only a little bit," she said. "There are some who decided they don't like her because my Sev is a tough professor who doesn't let anybody slack off in class." Thinking back, she recalled the hushed conversation she heard between Darla and Severus one evening during Darla's first year when she got up to use the loo after bedtime.

"I know a housemate in her potions group got really upset with her when she was a first year because he wouldn't do his part for their group's potion. He ended up causing them to fail. He didn't like that he'd have to write an essay to make up for their dreadful grade." Swinging her feet, Lottie speculated, "I think he thought Sev would go easy on his group because Darla was in it. When he found out he was wrong and that Darla wasn't going to even ask Sev to fix it, he tried to get one of his older sisters to do something to Darla."

Edie made a small gasping noise while Severus's unhappy expression became even darker. She looked at Ren, who was also gaping at her. She'd never thought much of what she overheard, but Lottie was realizing now it was actually pretty big what her aunt had gone through. She wondered if her parents regretted letting Darla be a student of Hogwarts then because while Severus was not the most loathed professor, she knew no one would call him their favorite either.

"She was okay," she assured the three. "Darla's dormmate Piper overheard him. She told Darla, who told Sev, who made sure he and his sister didn't hurt her." It was possibly not true, but since she'd never (over)heard of any more incidents, Lottie decided she would say it was:

"No one has tried to do anything that serious since."

There was a long moment of silence. Then, Severus, said, "Groups, you say."

Lottie furrowed her brows. _That_ was the part Severus thought was important? Not that his alternate sister was almost attacked by an upper-year because said upper-year's snotty little brother thought being in Darla's group should have guaranteed him a good mark? She crossed her arms. "Yes?"

He seemed to realize he'd asked his question wrong as he said, "Your father teaches students in groups?"

She nodded. Did that mean Severus didn't? How did he teach his students? She hoped they weren't all expected to brew their own potions. That sounded like it would be a nightmare to supervise. "Since always," she replied.

Edie looked at Severus then, eyes narrowed. "How do yeh teach yer students?"

"Pairs," he answered. "It was how the last professor taught potions and I learned."

That was a little better than the one cauldron per student Lottie had been imagining, but not by a lot. Tentative of the reaction she could get, Lottie said, "That sounds scary."

Severus seemed miffed by her answer. "Why?"

"I've watched you brew three potions at once," she told him. "Your robes were all sweaty by the time you were done."

"It is difficult," conceded Severus. "Many things can go wrong when one is brewing so many potions."

"How do yeh handle so many children brewin' at once?" asked Edie in a surprised voice that told Lottie it was just now dawning on her exhausting it must be to teach his classes.

"…Few leave without losing a handful of points or receiving detention," Severus admitted, his wand now in his hands, being wrung by his fingers.

Edie snorted. "I'm sure they love tha'."

"I don't care how they feel!" Severus snapped with a sudden viciousness that had all of them, her, Ren, and Edie leaning away from the wizard. "It is what decides whether Poppy will treat a classroom's worth of students for various potions related injuries every other day or not."

After the snarl faded from Severus's face, Edie asked in a quiet tone, "Do yeh snap at them like yeh did me too?"

He rolled his eyes and huffed like Edie was being silly, but Lottie didn't agree. She wondered if this Severus did react that way to his students. If he did, maybe that was why students from _his house_ were so willing to try and spell her or Ren. They probably didn't feel a lot of loyalty to somebody who made them feel scared.

"If they bloody listened there'd be no reason to shout at them," he said.

Edie's mouth pulled into a grimace and she declared, "I'm sittin' in on a class."

"Pardon?" replied Severus, blinking at the witch.

A spark of resolve in her eyes, Edie told Severus, "How yer teachin' obviously isn't goin' ter work anymore." Her eyes flickered to Lottie and Ren. "Yeh have the children ter think o'." When Severus's mouth opened, she raised her voice and told Severus, "I should be able ter leave 'em a few bookshelves away in the library without worryin' they'll get harassed."

Severus's mouth shut with a nearly audible sound. He then glared at Edie with a mutinous frown for a long moment. Finally, he asked in a voice oozing disdain, "How, exactly, do you believe sitting in on a class will accomplish this goal?"

Edie sighed. "I don't know how much Lottie knows," she said, glancing in Lottie's direction before she returned her steady gaze to Severus. " Or even told yeh, but I was in charge o' my younger cousins from the time I was six till I ran off at fifteen. There were five o' them an' they all listened ter me decently an' I didn't have ter sleep with one eye open because o' them."

Lottie watched Severus roll his eyes at Edie and say with more condescension than he did before her explanation, "Minding a handful of children is vastly different from teaching twenty-plus teenagers in a class where they are working with things that can explode."

The witch glared at Severus. "It doesn't mean there's _no_ relation," she insisted. Face becoming speculative, she suggested, "Maybe I'll find yer right an' there's nothin' else yeh can do ter control them."

"Then what is the point of sitting in on a day of classes," questioned Severus, tapping his wand on his leg in an agitated way.

Edie smirked. "Or maybe I _will_ see somethin' yeh can change," she said. Lifting her hands, she raised the palms toward to ceiling. "Only bein' there will tell us one way o' another."

Severus seemed nowhere near satisfied with her answer. Lottie thought he was going to refuse to allow her in the classroom again, but he stopped fidgeting with his wand and she saw a minute shift in the way he stood. He was leaning back now, ever so slightly and she almost gave in to the urge to bounce on the bed she was sitting on.

Edie had won!

"… _If_ I allow this, you will sit in the back of my classroom," declared Severus as he put his wand back up his sleeve and crossed his arms. His tone became sharp as he rattled off his rules for her to be allowed in the classroom, "You will say and do nothing while I am teaching. You will not talk to my students beyond redirecting them to their seats or to pay attention to my lesson."

Lottie thought Edie was doing an amazing job of not looking smug as she bobbed her head and agreed to his terms. "I can do tha'."

Severus stared at Edie a moment longer before he exhaled and turned toward the back of the infirmary where Poppy's office laid. "Let us talk to Poppy and see if she will mind watching the children for a day," he called over his shoulder.

Edie wasted no time following after Severus. Lottie smiled at Ren and offered her open hand to him. "Come on," she said. "You want to know if we'll have to do lessons tomorrow, right?"

Her brother took Lottie's hand. "Yeah," he said as she wrapped her fingers around Ren's. His hand fit nicely in her own — not as well as Eileen or Essie's, but close enough. In tandem, they hopped off their respective beds and hurried to join Severus and Edie in Poppy's office.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading, let me know your thoughts with a comment and/or kudo!


	12. A Critique

Severus and Edie waited until the children had been put to bed for the night before discussing Edie’s sitting in on his classes again.

“Tomorrow?” he suggested from his desk. “I have the second-years brewing a potion,” he explained as he began to reorganize his lessons for the rest of the week. He wished it wasn’t necessary, but he knew Edie observing his class would mean he couldn’t teach anything too difficult. His students were going to be too distracted by her for any truly complex concepts not to filter through the sieves they called their ears. 

Edie remained silent where she was on the sofa, flipping through the pages of the books she’d gotten for the children to read. He held back a frustrated sigh and told her, “You agree now or, otherwise, you will not have a chance to sit in on a potions lab in addition to regular classes until next week.”

Edie looked up, a frown on her face. “How many potions labs do yeh hold in a week?”

“One or two,” he explained. “Any more and I would be driven barmy.”

Her frown deepened. “Oh?”

He nodded. “Potions labs are… Trying.”

“I don’t want ter wait too long,” she admitted. “Then I suppose tomorrow I will have ter observe.”

He picked up his quill and crossed out a subject he was going to cover in tomorrow’s fifth-year lesson. “Excellent,” he said.

From his peripheral vision, he saw her close the book she had been browsing. “I think I’ll go ter bed now then,” she told him.

He nodded. “Good night.”

Standing, she offered him a half-smile. “Night Sev’rus.”

With that, she left him alone to finish his plans for the next day and, hopefully, complete his grading of the exam he gave his sixth-years the day before.

-o-O-o-

Severus watched Edie watch his students file into his class for his first lesson of the day. Thankfully, today’s first group were Hufflepuff and Slytherin seventh years. Severus had found over his last several years of teaching the seventh-years were the most tolerable. He reasoned it had to do with the fact they were choosing to be taught potions rather than forced. It meant they took what he said with serious consideration and were careful when brewing to get the best marks possible.

Given the level of severity they treated his class with, he was sure to demand only their best. 

Their usual staid demeanors disappeared when they noticed Edie, however, and frenzied whispers rose up. He cleared his throat and rapped his wand on his desk, drawing their eyes to him. When he had the relatively small class’s eyes on him, he said, “Today, Edie, will be sitting in on my classes. She… ” He paused, gathering together his explanation. “Was not educated at Hogwarts and expressed interest in seeing what a day of normal classes looked like.” He hardened his stare. “Today is simply another class,” he told them. “I expect you to behave as if we do not have an observer.”

Severus watched a number of his students nod in quiet understanding while a few murmured “yes, professor”s and “of course, sir”s. Satisfied, he began the lesson by opening his text and directing his chalk to begin scrawling the day’s major points on the board. A handful of his students still looked over their shoulders at Edie, who gave them a half-smile, the worst of her burn hidden by the hand she rested her cheek in.

It was not hard to tell she was bothered by people seeing it. Absently, he wondered if there wasn’t some salve or potion he could give her to improve the scar — if not disappear it altogether. He quickly pushed the thought away.

Edie would not accept such a gift. If it were for her and her alone, she would not take anything more from Severus than what he’d already given. It was frustrating and admirable. He only wished to give her things, clothes, books, salves to thank her for what she was doing for him. For Lottie. Yet she’d already accepted him giving Ren access to education that was already his by right as a payment far exceeding what she was doing now for him.

Severus wondered when Edie would realize what he was giving her son was nowhere near enough payment for what he asked of her. Severus had asked her to mother a child like her own, in the process risk her own heart, and then to give her up back to her family when the time came.

Would Edie hate him when Lottie went home? Would she accept her due after? Would it be enough to make up for the grief he would force her to experience?

The answers would not be found today.

That in mind, he locked his worries in a box in his head and pushed it away to the deepest part. The part he only looked in when it was a quarter past three in the night and he’d woken, unsettled, from a sleep. Now, it was time to teach. This would be Severus’s easiest class of the day. It would do for him to find some strength in it to prepare for the rest.

-O-

Severus watched his last student of the day, a very peeved Laurence Bulstrode, stomp out of his classroom, grumbling swears beneath his breath. Severus felt not the least bit sorry for the boy. He’d earned his two months of Saturday detentions dislocating Lottie’s elbow. If he wasn’t worried about it would do to his house’s standing in the cup, he’d have taken a handful of points from Slytherin too. 

Spelling for the door to close, he turned his attention to Edie. Over the course of the day, he had watched her calm expression turn into one that was tense and vaguely disapproving. Now, that they were alone, it was clear in its disapproval. She also seemed to be very vexed.

He held back a sigh. Severus should have known to see this was coming. _None_ of the other professors approved of his style of teaching. Why would Edie be any different?

He _had_ invited this, however. It was best he at least pretended to listen a little and get it over with. He waved to Edie. “You may come down now,” he said.

She stood, but instead of coming to be near him, kept her feet planted where they were. “I don’t know that I want ter,” she declared, hands on her hips.

He frowned. “What is that supposed to mean?”

Edie threw her hands up in the air. “Yeh go around treatin’ students like tha’ an’ yer _surprised_ a few tried ter hurt the children?” she demanded, expressing more anger than he’d seen from her before.

Severus did not like that he was the one that had brought it out. He also did not like the accusations she was throwing at him. He did _not_ treat the students poorly! “I only treated them as their behavior earned them,” he growled. “If they wish to act like dunderheads, they will reap the consequences!”

Edie’s eyes flew wide and she made a noise of disgust in the back of her throat. “They were bein’ _teenagers_.”

If Severus earned a galleon for every time someone told him that… Well, he could never hope to rival the Malfoys in this lifetime, but he would be quite a lot closer than he was now. “Teenagers are not what prospective employers are looking for,” he bit out, falling into an old, practice argument. “It is better they learn to curb their inappropriate behavior now when it costs them little besides a handful of points or a Saturday afternoon.”

Edie’s hands fluttered up in the air again. “A handful of points!” she exclaimed. Crossing her arms and balling her hands in her sleeves, she yelled, “I bloody kept track after the firs’ class. Yeh took forty from Gryffindor alone!”

Had she? Well, that was further than some other professors had gone while “observing” Severus. He didn’t let it deter his argument. “They are a combative, stubborn group,” he declared.

Edie scoffed and came down the steps to join him on level ground. Expression derisive, she said, “Yeh took _ten_ points from a lil’girl fer tripping over her own two feet.”

Severus had to think a moment to recalls what she was talking about. When he did, he bristled. “Ms. Johnson ruined almost a class worth’s of billywig stings!” he argued. What else was one to do in the face of such carelessness? Billywigs were perhaps not expensive, and Hogwarts professors were given a generous stipend to put toward supplies, but it did not mean a child could be thoughtless! What if it _had_ been an expensive ingredient? Severus may not be able to replace it as easily.

“It was an accident,” insisted Edie, not at all persuaded.

He glared at her and spat, “Nex time, she will know to be more careful.”

Edie shook her head. “No, she won’t,” she said almost looking sad as she spoke.

Severus was baffled, however. What other takeaway was there besides to show more care the next time? “Of course Ms. Johnson will!” he said. “She lost ten points for her carelessness.”

“Tha’s not how _she_ saw it,” Edie persisted. Her eyes shuddered with recollection. “I heard her an’ her housemate. They were sittin’ not two desks from me. She was cryin’ the whole time about how everyone was goin’ ter be cross with her later.” Edie bit her lip and looked at Severus through her sparse lashes. “How she thought yeh were punishin’ her because yeh believed she lied when she told yeh it was an accident an’ now everyone else was goin’ ter think she was too.”

He didn’t know how to respond. Ms. Johnson believed he thought her a liar? While he was convinced several of the student body were pathological in their need to fib, she was not among them. Severus recalled easily what it’d been like to be disbelieved when he had only been honest. It was not a good feeling.

He swallowed. “…I will clarify why I am taking points in the future,” he muttered, acquiescing for the first time to the plea of another to change his teaching methods. 

Edie seemed far from pleased, however. Instead, she gave a shake of her head and snarled at Severus, “Don’t take points fer accidents!” She pointed a finger at his chest and demanded, “Wha’ if that’d been Ren?” Severus opened his mouth, preparing to answer, but Edie threw a hand up and said, “No! What if it’d been Lottie, who tripped? Who spilled one o’ yer ingredients everywhere an’ ruined it? Would yeh punish _her_?”

He had to look away from her dagger-silver gaze. “They’re eight and seven,” deflected Severus, desperate not to answer. He felt whatever way he replied would be taken poorly by Edie.

She snorted, but let it go. “Twelve-year-olds are still clumsy an’ make mistakes,” she told him instead in a voice a decibel softer and hair calmer.

He huffed. “What do you propose then?” demanded Severus. If taking house points was a piss-poor idea, what was his other option? Detention?

Edie smiled for the first time since the children left. “Have her clean up her own mess,” she said.

Severus couldn’t hide all of his incredulity. “That is all?” he demanded. “What will that teach her about being more mindful in the future?”

Edie’s smile grew wider, satisfied, even. “Havin’ ter spend class time cleanin’ instead of brewin’ an’ possibly hurtin’ her mark will show her to go slower while gettin’ ingredients,” explained Edie. 

Severus frowned, though, he was seeing slightly what Edie was getting at. She appeared to understand he was not fully on board with her idea yet as she elaborated for Severus. “It’s like when yeh tell a toddler not ter touch a fire,” she told him, miming the motion of a person reaching out only to hurt themselves and pull back their hand. “They only listen after they hurt themselves once,” she said.

“Hmph,” replied Severus. So he had been thinking along the path Edie’s mind was on. Natural consequences for carelessness and (mostly) harmless stupidity would be better than taking points or assigning detentions. He was not yet entirely convinced it would work as well as Edie’s fire example, but he would try it a while all the same.

“I think yer too stressed durin’ yer brewin’ lessons,” she declared when Severus made it clear he was going to say no more.

He rolled his eyes. “Oh really?” he sneered. Of course Severus was. Everyone knew watching a classroom’s worth of students brewing was taxing. It was the one part of his teaching no one had ever criticized him for. He was the first professor in nearly a hundred years to not send a student to the infirmary during or after every potions lab. 

That spoke for itself. He was doing that, if nothing else, correctly.

Edie, however, took his sneering retort as an honest question. Or maybe she was just ignoring his snide tone. Either way, she was not looking at Severus, but at the empty desks in front of them. “Lottie’s father had the right idea making the students get in larger groups to do a potion,” she remarked as she began to slowly walk around in front of the table. Her hands began to trace the shapes in the grain of the desks’ wooden tabletops.

Severus himself tucked his hands behind his back and relaxed his stance. “It was something I had been considering once she mentioned it,” he admitted. It did sound almost pleasant to cut the number of cauldrons he had to supervise in half. There would be a lot less running to-and-fro, that was for certain. He frowned. “However, I am unsure how the headmaster will take to the idea.” 

Edie paused in her fidgeting to look at him and he exhaled. “Hogwarts is very stuck in its ways,” explained Severus, “Change is not accepted easily.” When I first began teaching, I wished to make my classes smaller, but it was not allowed as Albus said the board of governors would have an absolute fit about going against tradition.”

Edie pursed her lips. “Yeh don’t have ter tell him, do yeh?” she asked, tentative.

Severus was made to pause. “No,” he said. He didn’t have to tell Albus _anything_. He would hear about it all the same. Students couldn’t be expected to hold onto a secret even if their lives depended on it. “However, by word of mouth, he will know in no time at all.” Severus sighed and began to massage his temple. “The change may not last more than a day if he disapproves.”

Edie’s pursed lips began a prominent scowl. “It will be better ter try than not at all,” she persisted.

He weighed the pros and cons. Really, the worst possible outcome was to be told to _stop_. While the best possible outcome was even fewer students being sent to the infirmary and his nerves not being shot to Hell once or twice a week. “Very well,” he agreed.

Edie’s scowl smoothed away and her chin lifted. Severus almost smiled at her. It was not difficult to tell she felt she’d had a victory. He thought the look suited her. “Yeh in a different reality can teach tha’ way, tell him tha’ if he says somethin’,” she suggested.

“Yes…” said Severus, blinking. Edie did have a point there. Another Albus had agreed to group potions labs. He smirked at her. “That would be interesting, especially as it appears he is also the headmaster of Hogwarts there.”

She grinned. “See!” she exclaimed. Tone smug, she declared, “It’ll work.”

He wanted to believe Edie. Severus, however, was much more familiar with the bitter taste of defeat than he was the sweet flavor of victory. “If we are lucky, you will be right,” he told her.

Edie laughed at that. Then, she turned abruptly sober. “There is another thing yeh should do,” she said.

He frowned. Was not changing what he took points for and reducing his level of stress during potions labs enough? “Really?” he asked.

She nodded. “Yeh criticize yer students frequently, but I never heard yeh praise ‘em,” she told Severus. “Even when they brewed a potion right o’ answered a question correctly.”

Severus felt more puzzled than annoyed. “Why should I praise them for doing what is expected or for knowing answers I taught them already?” 

“It reinforces them ter do well o’ know those answers,” explained Edie. “They’ll like yeh more, an’ then, they’ll like the children too.”

Severus was surprised that he found Edie’s reasoning to be persuasive. Yet he was also uncomfortable. He didn’t know anything about affirmation. “…I do not think I will do well at praising students,” he admitted.

“It’s not hard,” Edie insisted with an earnest expression. “Tell ‘em well done when they brew a potion correctly,” she suggested. “When they answer questions right call ‘em clever boy o’ girl.” She smiled at Severus. “Lil’compliments add up.”

“Where did you learn all of this?” he questioned. Everything he knew and could see about Edie pointed toward a hard life with little love. Maybe even less than he had known.

Her eyes grew distant. “There was a couple down the hall from my aunt an’ uncle’s flat,” she told Severus in a voice that trembled only a little on uncle. “They had a few children near me oldest cousins’ ages,” added Edie. 

“The wife let us all in ter her flat a lot. I saw her talk ter her children an’ saw how they behaved fer her. I started doin’ the same with me cousins an’ they got much more obedient.” She giggled then, but Severus felt it sounded forced. “Me youngest two cousins I was actually sore about leavin’ behind ‘cause they were so swee’ ter me.”

Severus was quiet a moment. Then, in a murmur, he asked Edie, “Did you consider taking them with you?”

She sighed and turned away slightly. “Oh, I wish I could o’ taken them all,” she replied, discreetly wiping at the corners of her eyes. “I couldn’t, though. I had no money an’ no idea how I was goin’ ter support meself,” Edie said in a mournful tone. “It was only once I got ter Knockturn Alley an’ met a few ladies I realized wha’ I’d have ter do.”

It was nowhere near adequate a response, but he felt compelled to say it all the same. “I’m sorry,” he told Edie.

Edie clasped her hands in front of her and turned to face Severus fully. Her shoulders were stiff and eyes hard. It was as if she was daring him to fight with her. “I will never regret doin’ wha’ I did,” she declared. “It’s why I survived, why Ren is alive an’ well.”

Severus stared at Edie a moment. She was strong. So very strong. Severus was starting to realize why another him and fallen for this woman. He appreciated strength. It was something Lily had. His mother too (even if she never had enough to leave Tobias). “You are an admirable mother,” he said.

Her features softened. “Thank yeh,” she said. Then, teasing, remarked, “See? Yeh know how ter compliment someone.”

“Hmph.”

Edie came nearer to him. “It’s goin’ ter work, Sev’rus,” she assured, staring up at him. “Yer classes will be better, yer students will like yeh more.”

His stomach churned. “I’d really rather they don’t,” he said. He didn’t want them to like him, or, God forbid, care about him. Severus wasn’t worth that kind of concern anymore.

“Why?” asked Edie, frowning.

Severus was the one to turn away now. He walked to his desk and took a seat in his chair. Steepling his hands on the top, he rested his nose on his fingers. It would come out eventually. Why not be the one to tell Edie? She might distance herself after, but she would not leave out of fear for it ruining her son’s future. “…I did not want to be a professor,” he admitted through his fingers.

“Then why are yeh here?” she questioned.

“Albus,” he replied.

Edie tilted her head and crossed her arms. “Wha’?”

He forced himself to sit up straight and laid his hands flat on the desktop. “I’m not going to beat around the bush with you,” he said. “I made a mistake in my late teens and from then until my early twenties, it led to the deaths and injuries of many.”

Edie’s face blanched. “Yeh were… Yeh were one o’ _those_ , weren’t yeh?” she whispered.

He cast a furtive look at his classroom door. The chances there was anyone out there were slim, but one could never be too careful. He cast a silencing charm on the door. “Yes. I was a Death-Eater,” he replied then.

Edie bit her lip. “The Headmaster…” she mumbled, hesitant to voice her questions.

He sighed. “I told the Dark Lord about a prophecy I overhead and quickly realized it could mean the death of the only person I had loved besides my mother,” he explained. “When I tried to find a way to protect her, I had to approach Albus for help. For that help, I became a turncoat and spy, but…” Severus trailed off and looked to his useless hands. “She still died,” he whispered. After he’d gathered himself, he looked up at Edie, who’s eyes were wide, but not hateful. 

Unbidden, relief unfurled in his chest. “Now, because of the measure I took to try to save her, I am under the thumb of the Headmaster and am compelled to do as he asks of me,” he told Edie. “He wishes me to be a professor, to be here to help protect Harry Potter when he rejoins our would as a student of Hogwarts.”

Edie’s stare did not waver, though, it changed after a time. Still, hate was nowhere to be found in spite of his efforts to find the familiar emotion. “I can’t say I have any sympathy fer yeh,” she said.

That was more than fair Severus thought. He’d brought most of what happened on himself. In fact, he could see he was quite fortunate. “I am lucky, I know,” he said to Edie. “Contemporaries of mine are in Azkaban.”

Edie nodded her agreement. She approached him at his desk and reached out, brushing her fingers over his own. “Yeh can’t take yer frustrations out on yer students,” she said in a quiet, adamant voice. “It’s yer fault yer here, not theirs.”

He stared at the fingers Edie had touched. Unthinkingly, he said, “Some of them deserve to be taken down a notch.”

She made a small noise between a huff and a laugh. “Perhaps,” Edie replied. “But now yeh have ter think o’ Ren an’ Lottie,” she told Severus. He raised his gaze and found his eyes joined with Edie’s. They were mostly an unyielding gray, but a shimmer of gold — compassion — was visible too. “ Yer tied ter ‘em now,” she whispered. “Students aren’t goin’ ter ferget an’ if yeh don’t want ‘em hurt o’ bullied, yeh’ll figure out how ter be a better, less difficult professor.”

Severus would try, for the children, but he was unsure it would be enough to entirely make Ren (potentially, Lottie as well) not a target of bullying. “I will do what I can,” he promised.

She smiled. “Yeh have four years ter improve the opinions o’ the students.”

He did not smile back. Four years. Somehow, it didn’t feel like enough.

-o-O-o-

“Ah, Severus,” said the headmaster as he fell into Severus’s fast-paced stride toward his office.

He suppressed an urge to roll his eyes and returned the old man’s greeting with a curt, “Albus.”

The headmaster was not put-off. He even smiled at Severus and said with a false levity, “How fortunate to run in to you now.” His smile took on a sharp, warning edge. “I was planning a visit later.”

“Oh?” replied Severus, not faltering in his step, though he did slow.

The old man changed his own pace to match Severus’s with hardly a stumble. He nodded. “Through word of mouth I have heard the witch you brought to Hogwarts sat in on a day’s worth of your classes,” he said with something not quite reproval.

Severus knew it would get to him eventually. He was the bloody headmaster. Instead of sighing, he replied with a simple, surface explanation. “Edie was not a student of any school,” he told Albus. “She was curious to see what a Hogwarts education looked like.”

Albus looked at him out of the corner of his eye. There was a critical light to his bright gaze. “Hm, yes,” he murmured. “I am sure that was part of why she chose to observe,” agreed Albus.

Severus stopped and whirled around to come face-to-face with the headmaster. “What are you implying, Albus?” he demanded.

Albus, not the least bit ruffled, smiled widely at Severus.“There has also been talk the last couple of days that you have been almost…” He paused, adding drama they did not need to their exchange. “Pleasant,” he finished when Severus began to grind his teeth.

“Pleasant?” he echoed, annoyed.

Albus gave a small dip of his chin. “It has not gone unnoticed by students you haven taken fewer points.”

Severus felt his stomach jump to his throat. He swallowed it down. “Is that what they think?” he said with a sneer on his lips.

Albus simply smiled at him. “You also have given a few quite a shock by praising their correct answers.”

“Hm,” he grumbled, looking away from the headmaster. What was there to say? He would look like an idiot if he denied what Albus was saying. He also was not ready to say that, yes, finally, someone had gotten him to alter his methods of teaching.

The headmaster’s smile grew into a grin. “There are rumors going around you have been spelled.”

“Impossible,” he said with a scoff. “Edie’s wand does not work for her without a great deal of effort.”

The headmaster blinked, smile disappearing. “Truly?”

Severus nearly cursed himself. He should not have said that. It was something he was not supposed to realize, he knew. Edie was very covert with her wand. She did not use it around him much at all and he was not supposed to have witnessed her struggle to make it heed her. Yet he had.

He sighed. “I would purchase her one suited to her, but…”

“Do you need time? Money?” questioned the headmaster. “A witch should have a wand.”

He glared at Albus. “I have more than enough of both!” he snapped.

“What is it you need then?” asked the headmaster, not deterred by his tone.

Severus shook his head. “There is nothing you can give me,” he told the old man. “She will not take anything more from me. Edie believes what I have given her already is payment beyond what she deserves for watching Lottie.”

“Hmm…” said the headmaster, stroking his beard.

Severus scowled. “What is it?” he demanded. “I do not care for the look you wear.”

Albus smirked at Severus then. “If she will not accept anything from you, perhaps she will another,” he said.

His scowl deepened. It sounded like a very risky plan to Severus’s ears. “Albus,” he growled.

“She knows Poppy well, does she not?” commented Albus, a hand running through his beard again and eyes far off.

Severus crossed his arms. “No,” he refused, resolute.

Albus eyed him a moment. “I may come to your quarters for a visit.”

“No, Albus,” he said, more weakly.

He seized on his lack of will and asked Severus, “She would not turn such a generous offer down from the headmaster, would she?”

Severus scrubbed a hand across his face. “Edie will not be pleased.”

“If it means she will have a proper wand, I do not care,” declared the headmaster.

He blinked. Then, Severus frowned. “Why?”

“Why, what, Severus?” asked the headmaster, returning his frown with a confused furrow of his brows.

“Why are you doing this?” Severus clarified.

Albus was quiet a moment. He took his glasses off and began to clean them with a handkerchief. As he went rubbed at the lens of his glasses, he said to Severus, “I have heard of more than your abrupt change in attitude.”

It took Severus all of a second to realize what the headmaster was referencing. He balled his hands into fists and snarled, “I said to Pince there was no reason to tell you about what happened in the library! It was handled.”

“She did not tell,” Albus said as he affixed his glasses back on his face. “Our Mrytle overheard an exchange between a pair of girls just outside her favored bathroom,” he explained.

Severus’s rage did not lessen, if anything, it increased. Stomping a few steps away, he hissed, “The little—”

“Severus,” rebuked Albus, cutting off the rest of his insult.

He turned back around to face the old man once he’d taken a moment to breathe in and out and recompose himself. “Sir,” he said when he faced Albus once more.

Albus’s expression was grave. “There may be a time it will be she and the children alone,” he said in a soft tone. “While I hope what happened is an isolated incident, and that the rest of the student body has learned what a poor idea it is to target the children, we can not rely on that.” He met Severus’s gaze. “If Ms. Edie does not have a wand that works in her hand, she needs one that will.”

Severus often hated it when Albus was correct. Now was no different. However, he did not get angry about it. He agreed with Albus. Sighing, he relented. “Very well,” he said.

“Thank you, Severus,” replied Albus, smiling slightly. “Is there a time that will work well for you this evening?” he asked.

Severus did not need long to think. “After half-past seven,” he told the headmaster. “We and the children will be finished eating dinner and they will be off in one of their rooms playing while Edie and I partake in our own activities in the lounge area.”

The headmaster dipped his chin. “I will see you then.”

“Goodbye, Albus,” returned Severus.

With that, the headmaster turned away and went back the way he came, leaving Severus to recall he needed to hurry to his office. A student, Roger Davies, had wanted to discuss the grade he had received on his last exam. There was no way he would change it. He had done a miserable job explaining the properties of aconite and what its uses in potions were. But, perhaps, in the spirit of improving relations, he would put together some type of extra credit Davies could do to improve his mark for the class overall.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading, let me know what you think with a comment and/or kudo!


	13. Happ Birthday Ren

Lottie stepped out of Ren’s bedroom into what appeared to be a row in the lounge. Edie and Severus were both standing in front of the couch, an arm’s span apart. Edie’s arms were crossed, her mouth a slash on her face. As for Severus’s, his teeth were bared in a beastly manner and his shoulders were hunched near his ears. 

The headmaster was also present, he sat in a chair facing toward the little corridor that led to the loo and Severus’s room. His face lacked its usual joviality and was instead tense. Lottie wondered if she shouldn’t turn back around and tell Ren now wasn’t a good time to bring up birthday gifts.

Severus suddenly made a noise of frustration and snarled, “Edie, can you—”

Edie, however, seemed to finally notice Lottie as she drowned out the rest of Severus’s complaint by saying in a loud, falsely happy voice, “Hello, Lottie.”

At her greeting, the air of the room changed entirely. Severus was suddenly less feral in appearance and had moved away from Edie and to his desk. He leaned against it, grumbling darkly beneath his breath, but otherwise calm. As for the headmaster, he had shifted to face Lottie and was smiling. She let go of a breathe she hadn’t realized she was holding. “When did you arrive Professor?” she asked the old man.

His small grin did not falter. “Oh, not too long ago,” he replied.

She looked over at Severus. Pouting, Lottie accused, “You spelled Ren’s room, didn’t you?”

“No,” he said, glaring back at her. “You simply could not hear us over your playing.”

She turned her pout into a glower. Stamping her foot for emphasis, Lottie snapped, “I told you before it’s not clever to play stupid.”

Severus’s expression firstly turned into startlement, but quickly darkened into anger and contempt. Lottie felt a tingle of fear go down her back and glanced over at Edie, who was now standing straighter. The headmaster also appeared to pick up on Severus’s fury as he laughed and said, approving, “Ah, what an interesting saying!”

“Her father taught her it,” Edie said.

Professor Dumbledore’s smile changed and Lottie thought it was taking force for him to hold it place. Why was that? Lottie didn’t get the chance to ask. “Did he?” he said in a way that really wasn’t a question at all.

“Lottie, swee’ c’mere,” urged the witch. Lottie wasted no time and ran to her not-mother. 

Wrapping her arms around Edie’s middle, she stared up at her. “What’s going on, Edie?” she asked before leveling Severus and the headmaster with a suspicious look.

Edie put one of her hand’s on Lottie’s shoulder and grumbled, “Sev’rus an’ the headmaster are playin’ stupid about more than just spellin’ Ren’s room.”

“Edie,” growled Severus from where he was by the desk. Lottie pressed her cheek to Edie’s breasts. The wizard looked ready to cover the distance between them and do… _something._

“I’m right,” insisted Edie, chin raised up in a stubborn tilt. “Yeh can both drop the act now an’ tell me why yer insistin’ on _gifting_ me a wand all o’ a sudden.”

Lottie pulled away from Edie and stared up at the woman gobsmacked. They were fighting about getting Edie a wand suited to her? What in Merlin’s name for? That was _great_! Edie should have a working wand. It would make everything so much easier for her. “They want to give you a working wand!” she exclaimed delight.

Edie leveled her with an unimpressed stare as she said, “My wand works, Lottie.”

She puffed out her cheeks and looked away. “Not for you,” she muttered.

Severus seized on her dissent. “I know you have tried to conceal it, Edie,” he said, approaching the two of them. He stopped when they both shuffled away from him and the headmaster. For a moment Severus’s face flashed with pain, however, it quickly disappeared and determination took its place. “But I have noticed it does not work for you without a struggle too.”

Edie’s expression turned mulish. “I don’t need a wand ter do most things.”

“You are correct,” said the headmaster.

Edie smirked. “Thank yeh!”

“However,” said the headmaster with a somber frown, “while I hope what happened in the library is a one-time event, we must acknowledge it may not be and you may not have anyone near who can come to your and the children’s’ aid.” 

“Sev’rus said he’d take my advice,” insisted Edie, crossing her arms. “Things will improve.”

Professor Dumbledore looked over his shoulder at Severus, which meant Lottie could no longer see his face. However, a glance at Severus’s glare told her he did not approve of whatever look was on the headmaster’s face. “Ah, so it was you who influenced our stubborn potions master,” he said in a light, nearly teasing way that had Lottie blinking. She’d never heard this headmaster and Severus talk like that in the month and a half she’d been here.

Severus’s whole form tense and he hissed, “Albus, stick to the topic at hand.”

The headmaster sighed. “Very well,” he agreed before turning back around to face her and Edie. Expression serious, he said, “Ms. Edie, I understand you are a prideful witch and feel you have been paid more than fairly for the favor you are doing for Severus—”

“He’s paid me handsomely!” broke in Edie, indignant on Severus’s behalf.

The headmaster paused and took his glasses off. He cleaned them with a handkerchief from his pocket. After he placed them back on his face, he said, “Yes, but for the comfort of myself and everyone else in the castle, I insist you accept a gift from Hogwarts itself.”

“The new wand?” piped up Lottie, making sure they were still talking about getting Edie a new wand.

The headmaster rewarded her with a small smile. “Yes, Lottie,” he assured. “I would like Ms. Edie to accept a new wand.”

Lottie started to tug on the sleeve of the nice burgundy robe Edie wore. “You should do it, Edie,” she pushed. “Darla told me when she got her wand there’s nothin’ like it. You feel like your finally whole.”

Edie’s resolve seemed to be wavering, however, she argued still (Lottie thought it was appropriate. Her Edie never agreed to much without a row too). “Hogwarts’s money should go toward its students, not me,” she insisted.

Professor Dumbledore smiled broadly.“Ah, but you are the mother of a future-student,” he said. “For him, it will be better if his mother has a wand to defend him with, to show him what a responsible witch using one in daily life should look like.”

Edie bit her lip and looked first from the headmaster to Severus, who nodded at her. Lottie felt Edie’s shoulder loosen and her give in. “…All right,” she replied sounding weary and not at all pleased. “I will accept the bloody wand.”

“Excellent,” said Severus with a satisfied smirk.

Lottie began to bounce around the witch. “It’s going to be so fun, Edie!” she told her. “You’ll see.”

“Thank yeh, Lottie,” said Edie, patting her head. She breathed in and out and then, with a wide smile, crouched to Lottie’s height and asked her, “Now, what did yeh come out o’ Ren’s room fer in the firs’ place?”

Lottie scrunched her nose. What had she come out for again? “Oh!” she said aloud as she recalled. Spinning around on her heels, she gave Severus her best sugary smile and said, “To ask if Severus could buy forts for Ren’s soldiers for his birthday!” She then glanced back at Edie, looking for assurance as she told them all, “It’s next week he said.”

Severus moved over to sit down on the sofa. After a moment, Edie also joined him. They kept a cushion between them, however. Lottie wondered if she should sit in it to bridge them. In the end, she decided against it. “We can discuss that later, yes,” agreed Severus as he placed one elbow on the arm of the sofa and began to massage his forehead with his hand.

Lottie glanced between the two and then at the headmaster who was watching the three of them with a happy, quietly amused expression. “I also think we should have a party,” she declared.

Severus stopped rubbing his forehead while Edie went from having her ankles-crossed and hands resting loosely in her lap to sitting straight up, feet planted on the rug, and her hands on her knees. “Wha’?” she sputtered.

Lottie pouted at the two of them and crossed her arms. “Back home, we always have parties!” she argued. She bit her lip and said, a little hesitant, “I know you don’t know all of the professors as well as my Edie, but I think some would still come if we invited them, wouldn’t they?” She chanced a look at the headmaster, who appeared to be nodding his agreement, which settled it for Lottie. She bet he’d make everyone come even if they weren’t persuaded by Edie and her asking them.

Lottie snapped her fingers. “Also, we should invite George Weasley.” Lottie rubbed her chin as she thought aloud. “Probably his twin too, ‘cause I don’t think George would come otherwise.” Lottie sighed. She missed Eileen. They didn’t have quite as much in common as she and Darla did, but they were still the very best mates, and not having her breathing to listen to as she fell asleep at night was still one of the oddest things about this Hogwarts. “ _I_ wouldn’t go to a party if Eileen wasn’t invited with me,” she told Edie and Severus.

“George Weasley?” grumbled Severus. “Why do you want him at the party?”

“‘Cause he helped us when we were attacked!” she explained as if it were the most obvious thing ever. Really, it was. Why wouldn’t Ren want such a nice person at his party? Plus, Lottie thought parties were better when they weren’t all adults. At least she’d found them to be more fun since Darla started inviting the Bones children to all of theirs.

“That is very sound logic she is practicing, Severus,” commented Professor Dumbledore with a chuckle.

“No, it’s not!” snapped Severus. He looked at her then and declared, “You can write him a thank you letter if you want to let him know you appreciate his help.”

“Oh, but Severus!” Lottie cried, stepping toward him and clasping her hands in front of her chin.

His face darkened. “No.”

“I agree with Lottie.”

“Edie,” said Severus, expression one of surprise.

“If I’m goin’ ter be manipulated into takin’ this wand, yer goin’ ter let Lottie invite a couple o’ boys ter a birthday party for Ren,” she told him.

Severus glared, but Edie didn’t waver. “…Fine,” he relented.

“Do you think we need to invite the rest of the Weasleys at Hogwarts too?” questioned Lottie, feeling suddenly fretful. Of course George wouldn’t come without Fred, but would they both refuse if they didn’t have their other brothers there too. “To be fair?” she explained.

“No,” replied Severus, adamant.

“Yes,” agreed Edie, even more adamant.

Severus bared his teeth at the witch. “Edie, the Weasley twins have three brothers at Hogwarts!” he argued.

Edie’s eyebrows moved high onto her forehead. “At Hogwarts?” she repeated.

“I think they have more siblings at home!” cut in Lottie. “One mentioned a little sister to me in the infirmary the first time I met them.”

Edie shook her head.“An’ I thought Lottie’s mum was a madwoman fer havin’ four,” she muttered. Then, with a stern expression, she turned to Lottie and told her, “Yeh can invite all o’ them, but if anyone turns yeh down there will be no strops, understood?”

“Yes, Edie,” she said, grinning.

Edie gave her cheek a stroke. “Good girl.”

“Thank you,” she said to them both, but, mostly, Edie. She turned away and was going to run back to her brother. “I have to go tell Ren!”

“Wait,” called Severus.

“What, Severus?” she asked, looking at him with curiosity.

“Perhaps you should make the party a surprise?” he suggested, hesitant. “Then, he will be happy with whoever is there as he will not have built any expectations in the meantime.”

“Okay,” replied Lottie as the idea washed over her. Very quickly she was grinning. It was actually a brilliant idea. “Yeah! Surprises are more fun anyway,” she agreed with much more enthusiasm. She looked at him then, feeling a little pensive herself. She couldn’t say anything about the party, but did that include the fort he’d be getting at it? “I can tell him that you’ll buy him forts, though, can’t I?” 

Severus seemed to barely contain himself from rolling his eyes. “Yes, Lottie.”

“Thank you,” she said, grinning. Recalling the headmaster was in the lounge, she nodded at him. “Professor.”

He returned her nod. “Have a goodnight, Lottie.”

“We’ll come get yeh an’ Ren when its time fer bed,” Edie told her as she went to open Ren’s bedroom door.

“Alright,” she replied, smiling at the two who watched her. “Thanks a million times over, Edie, Severus.”

Edie returned her smile, eyes nearly a liquid gold in hue. “Yer welcome, swee’.”

-o-O-o-

While Edie had agreed to a new wand, she had refused to get it before Ren’s birthday. She wanted to do it the day after, making the outing in itself something of a gift for Lottie’s brother. Especially since she couldn’t exactly leave them without Ren figuring out something was up. She also refused to let Severus put her name on the forts he was buying for Ren and say it was a gift from the both of them. Lottie was sort of convinced what money Edie did have on her she was going to use the day of their trip to buy Ren whatever he wanted from the quidditch supply store. 

Her brother was going to love that. Edie hadn’t been fibbing when she said Ren liked Quidditch the same as Lottie. They listened to a lot of Quidditch talk on Severus’s wireless and had taken a couple of trips out to the pitch with her not-dad since his and Edie’s arrival at Hogwarts. Ren enjoyed it all. When Hogwarts had its next game before the holidays he was going to be ecstatic.

Lottie was pretty excited about the game too if she was being honest. But if she missed it… That’d be okay too. It would mean she was home with her Sev and Edie and sisters and Darla. Lottie would get to see _her_ Hogwarts’s quidditch game.

She shook her head. That was all a long way away from now. Right now, she was supposed to be looking for George Weasley. Severus had brought her to the Gryffindor common room for that explicit reason. She had wanted to make invitations for all of the Weasleys, but Edie and Severus agreed one was plenty since they were family.

Severus stood at the open doorway of the room while she walked around searching the faces of the Gryffindors for George. It didn’t take very long at all for her to find him in a corner of the room with a deck of Exploding Snaps, his twin, Fred, as well as a boy with dreadlocks and a dark-skinned girl. She smiled with her teeth at their gobsmacked faces.

“Here!” she chirped, handing off the invite she’d made special for the Weasleys. She had used red ink and some wicked stickers of lion faces that roared. Professor Flitwick had given her them when he popped by their quarters to see how their charmed windows were doing.

“Oh, thank you?” said George, fumbling with the invitation.

As he stared dumbly at the front, Lottie explained, “It’s an invitation to Ren’s party.”

“Party?” repeated the boy with dreadlocks, eyes all but popping from their sockets.

She nodded. “It’s his birthday in a few days.”

“…And I’m invited?” said George as he opened up the card and began to read the inside.

Lottie leaned over and pointed helpfully to the beginning of the invitation’s message where she listed all of the Weasleys in attendance at Hogwarts. “Also all of your brothers,” she told him.

“Really?” said Fred, leaning in from where he was next to the girl to get a glimpse of the card himself.

“It’s only fair,” asserted Lottie. “I wouldn’t go to a party if my siblings weren’t invited too.”

“You have siblings?” said Fred, curious, expression eager.

Lottie bit the inside of her cheek. Uh-oh. Severus was going to be cross if he heard. Which, he probably did. The Gryffindor common room had fallen silent at some point. Not even whispers were being said between students anymore. “Three,” she replied, clipped.

“Where are they?” asked the boy with dreadlocks.

Lottie looked to her toes swallowed the lump that was suddenly formed in her throat. “Not here,” she bit out. Why did she have to come alone? Why couldn’t she have waited to shake the globe until after Essie found her? Or even taken it back to their quarters and shaken it with Eileen, Essie, and Darla in the room?

“Right,” said Fred, rolling his eyes. “We should have expected that.”

Lottie decided to ignore the snark in his tone and instead turned a glare on George. “So, will you come?” she demanded.

He looked at the card in his hands and then back at Lottie. “To this party?”

“Yes!” she said, puffing out her cheeks at him. Wasn’t it obvious she was talking about that?

His eyes flickered behind Lottie, and, she thought to Severus. She hoped he wasn’t scowling at them. It seemed he was already quite disliked. Even by students in his own _house_. Darla always said no one in Slytherin ever actually said anything mean about him. Sure, sometimes they griped about a mark on an essay or having to re-brew a potion, but not anything about him as a professor or wizard. 

“Uh… Professor Snape is okay with this?” asked George, hesitant.

She nodded, though, it was perhaps not entirely the truth. “Edie said it was fine, so, yeah,” she explained aloud.

“That’s the boy’s mum, right?” inquired Fred.

“Uh-huh,” she replied, bobbing her head again.

“…Sure,” agreed George after a soft sigh. He glanced at his twin, who didn’t so much as blink at him, and said, “ Fred will too. I’ll talk to the rest, I reckon at least Charlie will be interested.”

Lottie grinned. That was far better than she’d been hoping after coming into the common room! “Wicked!” 

“Anything else I should know?” asked George as he put the invite away in a pocket of his robe.

Lottie began to tap her chin. “Oh,” she said, thinking. “Um… I’m also invitin’ all of the professors too!”

The girl whistled. “Wow, that’s a lot of people,” she remarked, smiling at Lottie.

She felt her own grin broaden in response. “I know!” she agreed. “We’re going to have the party in the potions classroom just so there’s enough room.”

“Sounds like it’s going to be a riot,” offered the boy with dreadlocks, laughing at the end.

Lottie began to twist her fingers in her plaid-patterned skirt. “I hope so,” she said. “Ren’s never had a party before.”

“Never!” said the girl and Fred in tandem while the other two gasped.

She shook her head.

“Huh,” said George, eyes bright and glinting.

Lottie decided it was time she probably looked over her shoulder and at Severus. She was absolutely not surprised to see that Severus had his arms crossed and he was glowering at her. She exhaled and turned back around to face the group. “Well, I got to go back to Severus. He’s glarin’ at me…”

“Sure,” replied George. He patted his pocket. “Thanks, Lottie.”

“Thank you for takin’ the invite!” she replied with a smile before spinning on her heels and skipping over to Severus.

He looked down at her once she stopped in front of him. “You have finished?” he asked.

“Yes!” she chirped. Grabbing his sleeve, she pulled at him. “Come on, we have more invitations to give out.”

Severus rolled his eyes, but he did not take back his arm and even let her lead them out of the Gryffindor common room and down the adjoining corridor in the direction of their next destination.

-o-O-o-

“Surprise!” yelled the room as Lottie, Ren, and Edie stepped inside to Severus’s classroom.

Her brother’s head swiveled around, taking in the sight. The walls were decorated with green and gold streamers. With the help of Professor Flitwick, she’d turned the blackboard into a very pretty sign that said “Happy Birthday Ren!” in curly cursive letters that shimmered from green to gold, to red, to silver and back again. On Severus’s desk, in front of the sign, sat a beautiful cake made to look like a Quidditch pitch that the house-elves had made special for them. It was already lit with sparkling candles that begged to be blown out.

In attendance was the majority of Hogwarts’s staff. A couple of them were still out in the castle, keeping an eye on the students. Soon, they would be joining the party, however, and a couple of different professors would leave to patrol instead. In addition to the staff were _all_ of the Weasleys. The twins and their second oldest brother, Charlie, seemed the most jovial. That wasn’t to say Bill or Percy didn’t look happy, but it was also clear to Lottie being in a room with so many professors was a little uncomfortable for them.

If she was a regular girl and not the student of a professor she could probably sympathize better. As it was, she was glad they’d come in spite of how strange they must find being at the party to be. Ren apparently finished with gawking, turned his attention back to her and Edie.

“Wha’s this?” he asked.

Lottie gave an exaggerated roll of her eyes and said, “Your birthday party, silly!”

Ren blinked his eyes, Edie’s, at the party. “…Mine?” he whispered, voice quavering ever so slightly.

She hid her wince and instead forced a giggle. Oh no, was Ren going to cry? She couldn’t let him do that. Someone might think he’s upset! “Yeah, it’s not anyone else’s birthday today!” she assured him. Reaching over, she hugged his shoulders and said, “It’s great, right?”

He nodded. “Amazin’.”

“Come down, lad!” called Professor McGonagall, Darla’s favorite professor, the one Lottie was named for. She was smiling from where she stood between Professor Sprout and the headmaster. “This cake won’t just let anyone blow its candles out,” she joked, showing that in spite of the stern face she put on for students, she was a witch with a sense of humor.

Lottie let one of her arms fall away and kept the other on the back of her brother. “Let’s go, Ren,” she urged.

As they walked down the steps to the main floor of the potions classroom, Ren asked her, “Did yeh an’ Mum plan this?”

“Severus helped too,” she replied once they reached the end of the steps.

“Really?” he asked, seemingly miffed.

She rolled her eyes. Of course he did. It was very obvious to Lottie he liked Ren. Perhaps more than her, even, since Severus had never yelled at him. “Yeah.”

“Wow,” he breathed.

Coming to stand in front of the cake, she let her arm fall down his back. She was going to let her hands rest by her sides, but Ren’s fingers darted out, grabbing onto her hand. She felt warmed by the gesture and proud when he looked at her, eyes asking for her guidance. Doing best to not look too smug, she explained to Ren, “Okay, so, you blow the candles out and make a wish, got it?”

“A wish for what?” he inquired.

“A whale!” called out one of the twins, eliciting a few chuckles from his brothers and professors alike.

Lottie huffed good-humoredly. Even so, she said to Ren, “No, don’t listen to him. You wish for something you really want.” Leaning in, she whispered into his ear, “If you’re lucky, it comes true before your next birthday.”

“Really?” he asked.

She nodded. “Uh-huh.”

Ren took a deep breath and stared hard at his candles a moment. “Okay,” he said, “I wish—”

“—No, don’t say it, mate,” cut in the tallest Weasley boy, Bill. He smiled at her brother. “These kinds of wishes only come true if you keep them to yourself,” he explained.

Ren glanced at her. 

“He’s right,” she assured.

“If it comes true, can I say what it was then?” he asked.

Lottie glanced around at those gathered. Some smiled, a few nodded. She shrugged her shoulders. No one was saying that it _didn’t_ work that way. “Sure, I don’t see why not,” she told Ren.

“Okay.”

“On three, alright?” called out Charlie Weasley, smiling at them. Eagerly, Lottie nodded and Ren copied her. “One, two, three!” he counted, and, on three, Ren blew out the eight candles on his cake.

“Well done, Ren!” said the headmaster, clapping his hands. “How does being eight feel?”

“I like it,” he declared. “Me an’ Lottie are the same age now.”

She pouted at her brother. “Only until May!”

“Tha’s a long time till then,” replied Ren with a snotty tone.

“Yes, it’s a while off yet,” broke in Edie, starling both of them when she places her hands on Ren’s shoulders. She steered him toward the desks holding his many gifts from the professors and even one from the Weasleys too. Their hands broke apart and while Lottie was a little put-off, she wasn’t sad. “Ren, look,” said Edie in an enthused tone. “Yeh have gifts ter open.”

“There are so many!” he awed.

Lottie skipped over and picked up one of the smaller gifts. She would have given it a shake, but Severus was glaring at her already. He did not like she’d picked up one of her brother’s presents. “That’s the best part about parties!” she declared. “The gifts.”

“Lottie!” hissed Edie, glancing over her shoulder at the professors who were sniggering and whispering amongst themselves. Much like her own professors back home, they were charmed by her acting cheeky.

“It’s true!” she argued.

Edie looked ready to grab her ear as she’d seen her do with Ren a time or two. Before she could, the headmaster separated from the staff and placed a hand on Edie’s shoulder. In a soothing tone, he told her, “It’s quite all right, Ms. Edie.” He gave Lottie an indulgent smile which she was all too happy to return. “We understand, most of us have had parties ourselves as children.”

Edie looked doubtful, but all the same, replied, “If yeh say so.” She then returned her attention to Ren (and Lottie). They were in the midst of taking off the very pretty purple and green paper from the little box she’d picked up earlier. “Ren!” Edie exclaimed, rushing over to put her hands atop her brother’s. “Don’t yeh tear inter yer gifts like tha’,” she chided. “Say thank yeh, firs’.”

“Okay,” agreed Ren easily. He turned the torn paper over, looking for a name. “Thank yeh Professor…” he squinted his eyes a moment, then, grinned out at the crowd. “Flitwick! Fer yeh gift.”

The little wizard beamed. “You’re welcome, young man.”

Ren finished tearing away the paper and opening the box. A moment later he pulled out a gray horse with wings. As he turned it over in his hands, the wings began to slowly flap.“Oh, look, Ren, it’s a pegasus with movin’ wings!” she gushed.

“It’s amazin’!” he agreed as he began to make it “fly” over the rest of the gifts.

Severus, who was now beside Edie, sighed. “The other, gifts, Ren.”

Her brother pouted. “But…”

Lottie felt like maybe she could save the moment. She tugged on Severus’s sleeve, getting his attention. “My Sev lets us stay up late to play with our Christmas an’ birthday gifts,” she said to him.

He pinched the bridge of his nose and corrected, “It’s and, Lottie.” When she murmured a proper “and”, he nodded and said to her, as well as Ren, “I think we can allow an extra half an hour tonight also.”

Ren put down the pegasus. “Okay,” he said, before lifting a cylinder-shaped box with a lovely rainbow-colored bow on top.

-O-

Twenty minutes later, Hogwarts's staff, Edie, Ren, and the Weasleys were spread across the classroom eating cake and chatting. Even Severus was discussing something with Sinistra. What, she couldn’t say. Astronomy and potions didn’t really have much in common nor cross very often. She was sure it was school-talk at least. Severus had shown her he wasn’t half as friendly with the staff of his Hogwarts as her Sev was the staff of her Hogwarts. As for Edie, she’d been drawn into some conversation with Poppy and Sprout. A look toward the presents told Lottie Ren was coloring in pictures with Charlie and Percy from his new coloring book.

Growing tired of listening to the headmaster and Professor McGonagall talk about something happening in the Ministry, she wandered away from the two and over to George Weasley, who was pouring himself a cup of punch from a bowl the House-Elves brought in a short while ago.

“How are you likin’ Ren’s party?” she asked him.

He lifted his glass of punch, a little sloshing over the rim. “It’s tip-top,” he said. “Thanks for inviting all of us.”

“You’re welcome!” she replied.

Leaning back on the desk the punch was placed on, George waved an arm at the room. “You and Edie put in a lot of work, didn’t you?”

“Severus helped too,” Lottie asserted. He’d made sure the room was clean and helped to hang the streamers just right. “But, yeah.”

“It’s really nice,” said Fred, joining in on the conversation.

Lottie jumped a little. She hadn’t heard him come up to the desk. She smiled at the boy even so. She was glad they’d come. Their brothers were making the party great for Ren.

“Was all of the green streamers your idea or Edie’s?” Fred asked as he picked up two glasses. 

Lottie was delighted when he filled one and gave it to her. “Thanks!” she said. After having a sip, she explained, “Well, I wanted a lot of streamers. I thought red would be pretty, but Edie said we should do green ‘cause this is Severus’s classroom an’ he’s a Slytherin.”

“Yeah, Edie had the right idea,” agreed George after a moment.

Lottie sighed. He was right. Severus would _not_ have liked it. Her Sev was perhaps a little more strict with Gryffindors than other houses, but she’d never seen or heard of him being so fast with detentions or robbing them of house points. “Severus is actually kind of mean to you all,” she said.

“Oh, so you’ve noticed?” said Fred, almost sneering.

She bit her lip. “Well…”

“Earlier, you said my Sev,” remarked George, catching Lottie off guard at the abrupt change in conversation.

She scowled down at her half-empty cup of punch. “No, I didn’t.”

“She did, didn’t she Fred?” said George, pushing off the table to stand beside his twin.

Fred nodded. “Oh, you’re absolutely right, George.”

“Stop,” demanded Lottie, eyes darting across the room to Severus. He’d noticed the twins were talking with her. However, he had yet to stop conversing with Sinistra. She wasn’t sure that would last much longer. “Severus is going to be cross,” she told them.

This seemed to be the wrong thing to say. The twins tensed and frowns spread across their previously impish faces. “Cross about what?”

“Will you be okay?”

“Yes, I’ll be fine,” she told them, strengthening her frown. “He’s going to be cross because I don’t think he wants students to know.”

“Know what?” asked George, blinking.

Fred leaned in, placing a hand on her shoulder. “We can keep a secret, Lottie.”

She looked once more to Severus. He was raising an eyebrow at her. She gave a small shake of her head. He returned his attention to Sinistra. She exhaled in relief and began to debate her choices. 

She was very sure if she refused, the twins would drop it. It was probably what Lottie should do. Yet… She’d been keeping the secret for so long. She was tired of no one truly knowing who she was and being looked at like some kind of puzzle. Lottie also felt the twins wouldn’t tell anyone. Well, maybe their brothers at some point. She didn’t mind that. Lottie didn’t keep secrets from her sisters or Darla very long either. 

She shaped her eyes into the fiercest glare she could manage. “You better,” she grumbled.

“So you’re going to tell us?” asked George, smirking.

Lottie put down her punch cup on the table and crossed her arms. “You can’t tell Severus you know! Or ask about Sev ever!” she hissed.

“Sure, Lottie,” Fred said, giving her a reassuring smile.

Lottie didn’t waste time. “I’m from a different reality,” she told them.

The twins exchanged miffed looks. “Sorry?” said George.

She balled her hands in her robe’s sleeves. “Really,” she insisted, “look it up in the library. I accidentally shook this snowglobe-thing that’s call a Reality-Shifter.”

George, who seemed more convinced than Fred at the moment, ran a hand through his hair and murmured, “Reality-Shifter, wow, that sounds mad.”

She bobbed her head in agreement. “It is!”

“So, you shook this thing,” said Fred, brows scrunched, but not entirely doubtful.

“Yeah, an’ I ended up here,” Lottie told them. She let go of her sleeves and uncrossed her arms. Placing a hand on her chest, she explained, “I’m from a different Hogwarts where a Severus is my dad.”

The twins’ eyes blew wide and Fred murmured, “That was the Sev you were talking about?”

She nodded and shrugged her shoulders. “It’s what I’ve always called him,” she said to the two. “I have an aunt, she’s the same age as your brother Percy,” she elaborated, glancing over at the older boy. He was still coloring with Ren. In fact, he appeared to be helping Ren with a picture. That was nice of him, she thought. “She’s lived with Sev and Edie since before I was born,” she said to them. “We copied her.”

“Edie?” echoed George.

“There, she’s my Mum.”

“Huh,” said Fred, hand running through his hair again as he looked over at Edie, who was still chatting happily with Professor Dumbledore and McGonagall. 

She bit her lip. In a small voice, she asked, reluctant to hear their answer, “…You believe me, don’t you?”

“We do, Lottie,” George promised.

Fred pulled a face and looked away. “It’s just a lot…”

George made a noise of agreement. Then, he smiled. “Things are making a whole lot more sense now,” he offered.

Fred huffed. “And none at all.”

George laughed. “Yeah, none at all.”

Lottie didn’t understand in the slightest. She pursed her lips. “What does that mean?” she demanded.

However, before the twins could put together an explanation, Severus appeared. He reached over the tops of their heads and filled a ladle of punch and poured it into the cup Lottie had left behind. He then picked it up and gave it to her. His eyes were piercing as he said, “Here you are Lottie.” Severus then turned slightly and acknowledged the boys. He dipped his chin at them. “George, Fred.”

“Sir,” the two returned in tandem.

Severus placed a hand on the back of her neck and commented, “You have been chatting with these two quite a while, Lottie.” He reached around and lifted her chin with a finger, forcing her to meet his gaze. “They are not pulling you into a plot, are they? The twins have been students hardly two months and they have already begun to earn themselves something of a reputation for trouble.”

“No,” she answered truthfully. She continued to stare into Severus’s eyes as she lied and said, “They’re just telling me about their sister.”

“Yeah,” jumped in George, drawing Severus’s gaze to him. He informed Severus, “Gin’s her age. She likes Quidditch too.”

“Hmph,” replied.

Lottie couldn’t be entirely sure, but Severus seemed to believe them. Or at least enough that he wasn’t too concerned about their fibs.

Having picked up that Severus had no intention of leaving them alone again, Fred grabbed his brother’s sleeve and said, “Buuut we can go talk to the birthday boy a bit now.” He shot Lottie a smile. “We’ve got a little brother too,” he explained. “Ron’s a little older than Ren.” George decided to show a little of his house’s daring by remarking, with a cheeky smirk directed at Severus, “Who knows, maybe they’ll both be Gryffindors.”

Severus glared at the two and grumped, “Hmph.”

Fred, who looked properly cowed by Severus’s stare, tugged his twin away. “Nice talking with you, Lottie,” he called as he moved further away.

She waved. “Bye!”

For a moment, she and Severus watched the twins settle down at the desks where their brothers and Ren were coloring. They messed with their older brother, Percy, a moment, who squawked a bit, but quieted down when their other brother, Charlie, said something. George appeared a little chastised by what was said too, though, Fred rolled his eyes and plopped down in the open seat right next to Ren and put his hand out asking for a colored quill. 

Ren was more than happy to give it and appeared to be in a very good mood to Lottie.

He was clearly loving having the attention of so many older boys. Lottie wondered if they could find something to invite them all to again soon. Edie and Severus didn’t have birthdays until January. Perhaps a pre-hols party?

“Is this party sufficient?” asked Severus, causing her to jump under his hand. He’d been silent for so long. She had come to think he was waiting for Lottie to speak first.

“Sufficient?” she repeated, not entirely understanding what Severus want her to say.

He sighed. “Good.”

She blinked. “Oh,” she said. Then, craning her neck, she gave her not-dad an upside-down grin. “Yes! Ren looks really happy.” Returning her gaze to her brother, she felt her joy double when she saw that the brothers were showing Ren how to make paper arrow-planes out of used wrapping paper. “That’s what a birthday party should have,” she told Severus in case he didn’t know. Which, maybe, he didn’t. Severus didn’t seem to have had or been to many parties. “A happy birthday boy or girl.”

“You are right. He is very happy,” agreed Severus. He squeezed her neck lightly. “Well done, Lottie.”

Warmth bloomed in her heart and fanned across her whole body from her cheeks to her toes. Severus was sparing with praise. Even more than her Sev back home. Getting it made Lottie feel like she _had_ done well. 

She hoped the Weasleys were actually trustworthy and didn’t spill the truth about her to anyone except for their brothers. In case they weren’t…

“Hey, Severus?” she asked.

He looked down at her with an arched brow. “Yes, Lottie?”

“If I’m still here when it’s my birthday, you’ll make sure I have a party, won’t you?” she questioned. If he agreed, it was a promise and he couldn’t go back on it. No matter how cross he was about the school knowing she was his daughter from an alternate Hogwarts.

His expression turned into a grimace, which made her frown. Even so, he nodded. “Of course.”

“Thank you,” said Lottie. She didn’t know why he cringed at her question, but she wasn’t going to ask now. The party was going well. Ren was happy, Edie looked quite pleased as well. And… It was nice standing with Severus, sipping her punch with his hand resting like a warm blanket on the back of her neck. The last thing Lottie wanted was to ruin this moment.


	14. Chapter 14

The morning after Ren’s birthday party, Severus woke to the sound of retching. When he went out to discover the cause and source, Severus discovered Lottie in the bathroom, head bent over the toilet. He hurried over to her and placed a hand on her back. He was worried when he realized her nightgown was damp.

“I think I’m sick,” said Lottie, staring up at him then. 

There was a dullness to her eyes and a flush to her cheeks that had Severus agreeing with her assessment. He nodded. “We shall see Poppy,” Severus told the girl.

Lottie’s brows pulled together. Severus held back a groan, certain Lottie was going to protest. Merlin forbid they visited the matron for her _actual_ purpose. However, instead of complaining, Lottie’s head snapped back around and she began to throw up anew into the toilet. 

He kept his hand steady on her back. “We will have her see us,” he amended. 

-O-

With Poppy’s visit, it came to light that the girl had caught the flu going through the castle.

It was unfortunate and Severus felt compelled to tell Edie he could ask another professor to take her and Ren to Diagon Alley for her wand. “I believe you’ve said you like Flitwick? I’m sure he would be happy to take you both for your wand.” He paused and eyed the witch who’s expression was far from excited. “As well as any other stops you were hoping to make.”

She scoffed then and busily began to rearrange the healing potions Severus had retrieved for her not five minutes ago. “Wha’?” she said. “No. Lottie’s ill, I’m not goin’ ter upset her too by leavin’ her behind on such a special trip.”

It was probably wrong of him, but Severus was relieved. He didn’t know how to care for an ill adult, let alone a child. In return, he told her, “I will keep Ren out of your hair.”

She smiled at Severus. “Thank yeh,” she replied before leaving for Lottie’s room with a fever reducer.

It was not terribly challenging to occupy Ren for the day. The boy had many new toys to amuse himself with. Severus only had to put in a token effort of interest to keep him content while his mother catered to Lottie’s needs and whims.

-O-

The day after Lottie fell ill, Severus did something he thought previously unthinkable. He offered to cancel his classes to continue watching Ren. The last thing they needed was for Ren to hurt himself or fall ill too by being too near in vicinity to Lottie. “I know you are competent and that you have likely cared for ill and healthy children together,” he began. Edie stared him down with crossed arms across his quarter’s dining table. Ren seated in a place between them, gnawed on a piece of sausage, gaze darting from his mother, to Severus, and back again. He felt more than a little cross when he was sure anyone who did have more experience with women and children would tell him he was doing right by Lottie, by Edie, to make his offer. “I simply wish to make your day easier.”

Edie’s expression softened a little around her jaw, but her tone was firm as she told him, “Yeh go teach yer classes. One sick girl an’ a lil’boy are no challenge fer me.”

He sighed. “Very well,” he agreed. Picking up his teacup, Severus finished his drink. Standing up, he reached over to run a hand over Ren’s head. “Behave yourself,” he ordered.

The boy smirked at him, which wasn’t exactly comforting, but Edie had been adamant. So, he turned and took his leave. He hoped it would not be hard to place Lottie, Edie, and her son from his mind as he taught.

-O-

Severus did not relish teaching on a typical day, but with Lottie ill in his quarters? He loathed it. So much so he almost wanted to return to his ways of yelling, taking points, and assigning detentions for every infraction. It would not change the state of Lottie, but Severus was frustrated. He was willing to do next to anything to make his bloody students shape up. Especially if it would mean Severus could fret a little less and stop the building migraine behind his temples. 

His commitment to his new method was sorely tried when Omie Gibbon (the little twit who goaded his Slytherins into trying to attack Lottie and Ren) “mistakenly” knocked not only her inkwell from her desk, but that of her housemate too and made a ruckus apologizing. Instead of blowing up at the girl like she’d evidently been hoping for, he let her finish her show and then asked for her wand.

“Thank you,” he said to the frowning girl. “Now, clean up.”

Her frown grew deeper and a canyon began to form between her pale brows. “How?” she asked. “You just took my wand.”

Severus wasted no time conjuring a bucket and rag for the girl. “Go find water from the bathroom down the hallway,” he told her. “You will have no problems cleaning your mess up with those.”

“Sir—”

Severus didn’t let her finish her complaint. “Now!” he snapped. She jolted, but so did several others. He realized then it had been a few classes since he last raised his voice with them. Turning away from Gibbon, he returned to his place behind his desk. “Hurry up and I will return your wand when you are finished, Ms. Gibbon.”

Ms. Gibbon stood still a moment, staring incredulously at him. When he did not respond to her idiotic staring and instead returned to his lecture, she huffed and left the classroom with her bucket. A few minutes later, she returned and took her rag and cleaned the ink she spilled from the floor and her desk. When she finished, Severus came near to inspect her work. Finding it satisfactory, he returned Ms. Gibbon’s wand to her.

“I think you will know to be more careful with your arms next time, hm?” he asked.

There was ink staining the fingers that took her wand. “Yes, Professor Snape,” she grumbled.

While he could have done with a little less attitude, Severus made the choice to ignore the sulkiness of the girl’s tone and continued on with his lesson until his hour with Ms. Gibbon and her classmates was over.

As he watched them all file out of his class he felt… Not proud, but gratified to see that the methods Edie had suggested seemed to be having _some_ effect on the children.

-O-

The next day, Severus did have to cancel his classes. Edie had taken ill too. By the weekend, it was him and Ren who was sick. It became evident shortly thereafter getting Edie her wand would have to be put off for yet another week. 

Edie was in Severus’s dimly lit bedroom, checking in on him and making sure he had plenty to drink. It was frustrating that he was laid up in bed when the four of them ought to be in Diagon Alley. Again, he offered to have someone else take her. “You have already waited far longer than I care for,” he said between coughs. “It is beginning to feel unfair to have you be patient so long for something I promised you over two weeks ago.”

Edie refused Severus just as she had the week before. “We’ll get it all tergether, o’ not at all,” she said to him as she poured him a new glass of water to wet his aching throat.

Severus would not say so, but her stubbornness left him feeling very fond of her. The way she spoke of the four of them, she made it seem as if were bonded. A family, even. He reached out and touched her wrist as she placed his newly filled glass on the table beside his bed.

Edie looked down at his hand, then his face, her eyes shimmered between gold and silver. “Sev’rus?” she said, tone light, belying the assessing quality of it.

He sighed. “You should not speak like that,” he told her feeling regretful as he did. “Soon, there may not be an us at all. Edie… Do not grow too comfortable.”

Her eyes flashed silver. “I think yer the one who should be takin’ yer own advice.”

Severus’s hand fell from her wrist and Edie turned away from his bed and left. Alone again, Severus stared at his glass of water. He felt compelled to ration his glass. If he’d caused his mother to leave like that, Severus could not expect her to check on him again soon. From the way he had seen her care for Lottie, even when she fussed at her… Severus did not think Edie would stay away so long he’d run out of water.

If she did, however, he had his wand. His headache was mild and he had no dizzy spells thus far. An aguamenti would not be difficult to produce. It settled Severus and he leaned back in his bed and closed his eyes in an attempt to rest. He felt mostly at ease as he drifted off. Severus’s days of helplessness were far behind him and there was no reason to worry.

He would be fine — With or without Edie.

-o-O-o-

After finishing his last class for the week, Severus took a few minutes to check his classroom’s stores. As he did, he took note of what he needed to buy while he was in Diagon Alley tomorrow with Edie and the children. It was not too long a list, thankfully. As he folded the listed and tucked it away in his pocket, the headmaster appeared in his classroom’s doorway.

“Ah, what can I do for you sir?” he asked the old man.

Albus offered him a smile. “I understand tomorrow you will finally be going to Diagon Alley,” he said.

Severus nodded. Locking his hands behind his back, he strode toward the headmaster. “Yes,” he answered. “What can I do for you, Professor?” he repeated. He had no interest in chit-chat. Severus had plans to take the children to the Quidditch pitch in half an hour. Today, he would be taking them each on a broom ride around the pitch. Ren was particularly keen. He’d ridden a broom only once before and that had also been with Severus.

“Lottie,” said the headmaster. “Ms. Edie being in the castle has settled her?”

Severus puzzled over the question. In fact, having Edie and Ren at Hogwarts had gone quite far in settling Lottie. Instead of waking him frequently at night, it was more a weekly event and Lottie’s tears were not half as bitter. Yet why did the headmaster care now? Especially when he’d seemed so reproving of Severus bringing Edie and Ren to the castle without consulting him first.

“Her sleep is more restful, yes,” said Severus.

Albus stroked his beard. “That is good,” he replied. “Does she talk less frequently of her parents? Sisters? Poppy used to say not an hour went by without her mentioning them.”

The hairs on Severus’s skin turned into spines. “Edie and Ren have not made her forget them,” Severus spat. He brought his arms to lay crossed in front of his chest. “They are her _family_.”

The headmaster’s smile slipped and his expression turned grave. “I was simply trying to see how she was adjusting. It has dawned on me she has been with us two months now.”

“She still dreams of going home,” Severus said annoyed. “Where she belongs,” he added.

The headmaster turned his head. “I have written to the Unspeakables in charge of her case. They have hit something of a blockade in pinpointing her exact reality. They are uncertain of when they will.”

“ _How_ uncertain?” demanded Severus. He would keep Lottie. He would ask Edie and Ren to stay for her. He would do everything he could to make sure she was as happy as circumstances would allow. What Severus needed to know was how long that would all be. Through Christmas? The next summer? _Her entire childhood_?

Albus took off his glasses and began to clean them with a handkerchief from his pocket. Severus gritted his teeth. The old man was stalling and he hated what it meant. Lottie clearly was going to be with him far longer than any of them had thought or hoped.

“They are estimating it will be somewhere between another six months to a year before they can get into an accurate range of potential universes.”

Severus made a noise of indignant anger. It would be that long until they were _close_ to getting Lottie home? That was terrible. Lottie would be inconsolable when he told her. “What if… What if we could give them Lottie’s memory of what the shifter looked like before she shook it?” Severus asked after a minute of brooding thought. “They could, in a way, see what her reality is supposed to appear as in the reality-shifter.” He knew nothing of reality-shifters beyond the superficial gleaning he’d done in a couple of books from the Forbidden Section of the library. However, if they were doing some type of calculation to figure out what her range of possible home realities was, perhaps seeing what it appears like and taking from it some visual clues would help speed along their process.

Albus began to stroke his beard anew. “Hmm,” he murmured. “It is not a bad idea,” he admitted. “There could be something of use there.”

Severus, who knew what it looked like when the headmaster was humoring someone, sagged where he stood. Albus appeared truly speculative and his voice was tinged with hope. His suggestion could help. Perhaps Lottie would see her home before she was too grown to be recognized by her own mother and father. “I will have the memory for you Monday morning,” promised Severus. Then, side-stepping the headmaster, he said, “If you will excuse me, sir, I have children waiting on me.”

Albus chuckled. “Of course,” he replied. “I will see you Monday morning. Thank you for your time.”

Severus paused and looked over his shoulder at the old man. “Of course,” he said. “Thank you for your update on the situation.”

-o-O-o-

It was easy enough to fall back into the familiar waltz of Diagon Alley for Severus. He weaved between chatting witches and wizards blocking his path and side-stepped errant toddlers running off from their guardians. He paused mid-step when a door to a shop opened and a witch or wizard joined the rabble of the street. A glance to his side, at Edie, told Severus she recalled the rhythm of the street just as well as he. 

Perhaps better. Knockturn Alley was not far at all from here, unlike Hogwarts. He imagined she traipsed Diagon Alley much more frequently than he did. Severus then turned his eyes to in front of him where the children strolled. 

They were gawping at next to everything; little heads snapping from left to right to left again. Their hands shot out at odd intervals to bring one another’s attention to this and that. Now and again, Edie and he took turns prodding the pair to not stop. It slowed their trip down, but he couldn’t find it in himself to mind.

He’d not found Diagon Alley so exciting since his first trip before he began at Hogwarts. To see Lottie and Ren enjoy the street so thoroughly was fascinating. It brought to mind his mother, what she must have thought of Severus the first time she brought him here. Did his excitement bring her excitement? His joy her joy?

He attempted to recall her that day. It was a cherished memory, his first visit. Severus did not recall much of his mother in it, however. He’d been too focused on all of the new sights not that of his old mum. Severus could remember, however, looking at his mother when he got his wand.

He had held it out to her, seeking her approval. His mother had smiled in a way entirely new to him. Severus recalls the way it made her face seem to glow and wrinkles he hadn’t known his mother’s eyes capable of making appeared. It had left him breathless and proud. He’d only seen her smile that way one other time after.

Severus wondered how he was going to feel when Edie got her wand. What it would be like to see her become a true witch? Before he could contemplate it, they were at Ollivander’s wand shop. Severus reached over the children’s’ heads and opened the door for them and Edie.

Walking inside, he watched avidly as Edie and Ren took in the shop. It was a fairly dim place with only a few hanging lights that cast a yellow glow over the showroom. It was of no surprise. Except for the window turrets beside the shop’s door, all of the walls were made of recessed shelving that held the hundreds of wands that the Ollivanders kept on hand for sale. 

Ren had curled his hands in his mother’s calf-length paneled skirt and was staring with an open maw at one wall that was wands from the floor to the ceiling. As for Edie, she had brought a hand to her face. It was held in front of her scar and her fingers extended over her mouth, hiding if she was also staring open-mouthed or smiling at what she saw. He held back the urge to frown at her hiding and instead looked to Lottie.

She was beaming at the both of them and Severus felt his own lips quirk in a small smirk. Even if Edie did feel compelled to hide part of herself now, it was clear that she and Ren were very excited to be in the shop for what was likely the first time in both of their lives. That was what he ought to focus on. He had never thought to ask Lottie how her mother felt about her scar, but it may be worth his time to later. If only so he could see if there was not a way to make her more comfortable with her appearance. He would offer to find or make a potion to lessen its severity, however, Severus knew she would say no.

Getting her here today had been a battle and a half.

“Hello, how may I—” began a wizard as he appeared from behind the mustard curtains behind the Ollivander’s counter. However, he stopped short when he spotted Severus. In return, he gritted his teeth. It was Ganymede Ollivander, Garrick Ollivander’s son.

He held back a sigh and approached the counter. “This witch would like a wand,” he said to Ollivander.

Ollivander raised a scruffy brown eyebrow. “Did your previous one break?” he asked Edie.

“No,” she answered, hand falling away from her face. Severus saw wince Ollivander wince out of the corner of his eye. Edie’s expression turned strained and she locked her fingers together in front of her. “I’ve never gotten a wand here,” she explained. “I was usin’ one from a second-hand shop.”

Ollivander’s voice dripped with disapproval. “Ah,” he said. “That must have been quite difficult.”

Edie, unsurprisingly, bristled. “I managed just fine,” she replied, shooting a glare at Severus as if he were to blame for Ollivander’s disapproval of her wand. “But I’ve recently realized somethin’ a lil’more obedient would be better with two children ter keep out o’ trouble.”

Ollivander looked to Ren and Lottie. The pair had left their sides to inspect the shelves of wands more closely. Thankfully, it seemed, both knew better than to touch anything. 

“Their quite a pair,” remarked Ollivander. He stared at Severus as he asked Edie, “Are they yours?”

“Yes.”

“No.”

Severus and Edie’s eyes met and he scowled at her for her answer. Lottie was _not_ hers. She belonged to a different Edie and she would be going back to her the minute it became possible. In return, Edie pursed her lips and looked away from him and Ollivander. Severus sighed. 

“The boy is,” he explained. “Lottie is… Family under her care for the time being.”

Ollivander did not look as if he believed them. However, it seemed he’d learned to be less nosey since his youth and said instead, “I’ve got a niece about their age.” He looked at Severus. “I expect she’ll be a Ravenclaw like her parents and myself.”

He grunted. “Hopefully she takes more after Pandora than you or Xenophilius.”

The man turned his head and began to scratch his beard. “Ah, well, she has a few more years before she’ll become a student. That’s plenty of time for Luna to grow out of her flights of fancy.”

“Hm, yes,” he replied. Severus suspected no such thing would happen and Ollivander was being foolish. Xenophilius Lovegood had been a joke among many during Severus's early school days. He'd been known as an upper-year who, after being a student for six years, could _still_ get lost in the castle because he always had his nose in some rubbish tabloid reading ridiculous stories about fake things like wrackspurts.

Ollivander cleared his throat. “Right. Well, we should probably start having you try wands, shouldn’t we?” suggested the wizard, returning his attention to Edie who watched them both with a slight wariness.

“Oh! Oh!” called Lottie, jogging over to meet them. “She needs a cedar wand with unicorn hairs for a core,” said the little girl. She then shrugged her arms and added, “But I don’t know how long or flexible it should be.”

Ollivander was staring at her wide eyes, his long face bewildered. “Right,” he said. “Well, I guess we can try a few to see what lengths and level of flexibility would be best.”

Lottie grabbed Edie’s hand. “This is going to be so fun! When Darla tried out her wand, she put out the lights with a wrong wand.”

“I’m not doin’ tha’,” declared Edie.

Ollivander, who had their back to them, laughed enough to make his narrow shoulders shake. “Ah, that’s hardly the worst thing that’s happened around here,” Ollivander declared as he levitated a few wands down from a shelf two heads taller than him. Turning back around to face them with the wands, he smiled. “It’s too bad Dad is home ill with the flu or he’d probably have a few stories to tell.” 

Ren, who had also returned to his and Edie’s side now that wands were being brought out, pouted. “Yeh don’t know any?” he whined.

“Ren,” hissed Edie.

Ollivander shrugged. “I’ve never been much of a storyteller,” he said. “Or very good with words at all,” he admitted, casting a look at Severus. “You’re… Uncle? Could tell you that. He was a few years beneath myself and my sister.”

Ren glowered rather impressively at Ollivander. “Sev’rus isn’t my uncle,” he said. “He’s Lottie’s—” Severus made a noise in the back of his throat, drowning out the rest of Ren’s answer. 

“The wands, Ollivander,” Severus said as Ren jolted in place, realizing what he’d nearly done.

Unsurprisingly, the other wizard’s expression was suspicious. “Right,” he said. Severus was thankful the man was on the job and that the Ollivanders’ prided themselves on offering excellent service. “Here you are,” he said to Edie. “It’s unyielding and eight inches long.”

Taking the offered wand, Edie gave it a languid wave. A little bit of smoke came out the end, but it was a trickle and not terribly impressive at all.

“Hm, let’s try another,” said Ollivander, reaching into a different wand box and pulling out a slightly longer wand. “This one is nine inches and rather flexible.”

When Edie gestured with the new wand, the difference was obvious. Where its reaction was weak before, this time it was strong and bright. A rainbow light shot from the wand and clear across the sales floor. 

“Mum tha’s wicked!” cried Ren before he promptly stuck his hand in the light.

Lottie hopped up and down. “I love it! Can I try?”

“No,” all of the adults said without so much as having to look at each other. It was horrifying and amusing to realize he and Ollivander could agree on something. Severus looked at Edie. Her expression was one of fascination as she canceled the light and brought the wand nearer to inspect. Over it, her eyes found his.

He nodded at Edie and offered a small smile.

In return, she grinned widely and a flush came to her cheeks. “Thank yeh,” she said. “Lottie was right,” she remarked. “I feel… Whole.”

He nodded. Severus understood very well. While other wands could work in a pinch, using your own felt like a third hand in a way. He felt… Proud to have joined Edie with her missing limb.

“Let us pay for it and then we can go to the Quidditch Supply store,” Severus said.

The children swarmed him at his words. “We’re going to the quidditch store!” yelled Ren with excitement while Lottie grabbed his sleeve and began to pull at him in the direction of the counter.

“I love going there, let’s hurry, Severus!” she pleaded. 

Severus looked at Edie. “This may have been a mistake,” he remarked.

She giggled. “Children,” she called. “C’mere an’ let Sev’rus pay. _I’ll_ be the one buyin’ yeh things at the Quidditch store anyway,” explained Edie as the children left him to flit around her instead. She put a hand on her son’s head. “Now, calm down.”

Ren and Lottie both took deep breathes and stopped all of their jumping to stand still on either side of Edie. Severus thought it mildly impressive. He couldn’t get Lottie to behave so quickly without menacing her a little first. He would have to ask later how she got children to listen so well.

Turning his attention to Ollivander, who’d moved back behind the counter of his family’s shop, he said, “The wand will be all.”

“Sure,” said Ollivander before rattling off the price of Edie’s wand. “Hey, Snape, just who is the lady and the kids?” he asked as they waited for his register to pop open.

Severus bit back a sigh. So Ollivander was still as nosey as always. “Family,” he said. “Some unexpected circumstances arose that called for the three to stay with me,” he told Ollivander hoping it would be enough to stop the questions but also would not lead to too much wild speculating on Ollivander and his mates part when they met to rabbit at a pub later.

“Huh,” said Ollivander as he accepted the coins Severus pushed across his counter. “Well, the children are cute,” he said. “The witch, Edie, seems nice too.”

“Yes,” agreed Severus as he backed away from the counter, their transaction finished. “Goodbye, Ollivander.”

“See you around, Snape,” he returned as Severus took the lead and ushered Edie and the children out of the store and back onto the street.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading, please let me know your thoughts with a comment and/or kudo!


	15. Questions with No Easy Answers

“All done!” declared Lottie, showing off her clean teeth to Edie.

The witch patted her head. “Good,” she said. “Let me tuck in Ren an’ then I’ll come ter do yeh,” she said, gesturing to Lottie’s brother leaning against her. He, like Lottie, was in his pajamas. Unlike her, he was tired with half-closed eyes. 

She suspected their game of tag before dinner out on Hogwarts’s lawn had tired him out. Lottie couldn’t help but smirk. She _was_ fast. Ren chased her a lot more than she’d chased him. “Okay,” she replied.

However, Severus, who had been reading the paper on the lounge room sofa, put it down and said, “Actually, why don’t I see Lottie to bed tonight?” he suggested.

Lottie’s stomach twisted. Since Edie had come to stay with them, it had become her job to put her to bed. Severus only popped his head in to wish her a good sleep. Why were they changing things again? Had she done something wrong? Lottie bit the inside of her cheek. Severus didn’t know she’d told the twins she was from another reality, had he? She narrowed her eyes. He’d been with them all weekend, first going to Diagon Alley yesterday to get Edie her wand and then Ren’s belated birthday gift from the quidditch store. Today, he’d spent it in their quarters practicing spells with Edie except for the hour before they ate where they went out on the lawn together to get some fresh air and let her and Ren play.

So why did Severus want to tuck in Lottie all of a sudden?

Edie seemed confused herself, tilting her head to the side a moment, but she agreed all the same. “Suit yerself,” she said. “I’ll come ter kiss yeh after Sev’rus has finished tuckin’ yeh in,” she told Lottie.

“Of course,” murmured Severus and Lottie felt a little more at ease. Maybe she wasn’t in trouble for anything? She looked up at her not-father. He didn’t seem annoyed, stressed, perhaps, but his easy agreement said a lot Lottie thought. Whatever it was, it wasn’t going to take him long and he didn’t mind if Edie came in soon after. He turned then to her. “Come along,” he urged.

Lottie followed Severus to her room as Edie guided Ren to his. Once they were alone in Lottie’s room, he closed the curtain that separated her from the lounge room but did not cast a silencing or eavesdropping spell. Taking a seat on her bed, Lottie felt even less worried. Maybe he just wanted to ask her something?

That seemed to be exactly the case as Severus came to stand in front of her, expression demanding. “Lottie,” he said. “I need your memory from when you found the Reality Shifter.”

Lottie pulled a face at Severus. “Why?” she asked. “Do you need it to get me home?” she said, crossing her arms.

“Yes,” he replied, nodding his head. “The Unspeakables in charge of your case believe it will help them pinpoint your reality from the near-infinite possibilities.”

Lottie frowned and began to pick at a thread on her bed’s quilt. Severus didn’t usually have a lot of news about the people working to get her home. Lottie thought she should probably be excited that she was finally being told something, that they seemed to be growing closer to getting her home. Yet…

Severus didn’t sound happy or look satisfied. If anything, Lottie thought he was being a little too harsh right now. Lottie wondered if he was trying to make it seem like he didn’t have time for questions. Asking Lottie for her memory right before she was to go to sleep also made it feel like Severus was trying to control things. He could decide to leave and say she needed to go to bed at any moment if she didn’t do exactly what he wanted.

Lottie’s frown morphed into a scowl for a moment. She didn’t like this. Even so, Lottie decided to agree, though, it didn’t feel like Severus was telling her everything. 

Lottie wanted to go home. 

“Well, okay,” she said, looking up at him again.

The hard lines of his jaw grew softer. “Thank you,” he said before pulling out a vial from a pocket in his robe and letting his wand slip down into his hand from where it was up in his sleeve. “Now, please close your eyes and recall finding the reality-shifter, how it looked, shaking it, and leaving it afterward to wander Hogwarts’s halls.”

Lottie did as instructed. Breathing through her nose as she remembered picking it up, feeling wonder at the sight of Hogwarts inside. How shaking it brought about a slightly different Hogwarts, but not enough for her to notice until she was taken to the headmaster’s office. As she walked through the memory, she felt the tingle of it being tugged at and taken by Severus’s wand. 

“It is done,” he declared a moment later and Lottie opened her eyes. Her attention quickly fixed on the vial in Severus’s hand. That was her memory. A shimmery, silver mist-like substance contracting and expanding in the bottle.

“…Severus?” she whispered after a moment, eyes still on the memory.

“Yes?” he asked.

“Now that they’re going to have my memory, when do they think they will have me home by?” she asked, raising her gaze to his suddenly closed-off face. “My family has to be gutted about me by now.” Lottie’s lip began to shake as she thought of her parents, sisters, and Darla. They had to be so confused, so scared. Lottie had been there one moment and the next… “I bet they think I’m dead,” she whispered as tears pooled in the corners of her eyes.

Severus put his wand and the memory away in his robe. Crouching down next to Lottie, he placed a hand on her knee. “No, I’m certain they do not,” he assured her. Severus almost smiled at Lottie as he said, “I have known you but a short time, however, I can see you are a very obstinate, very brave child. I am sure they think wherever you have gone, your willfulness will bring you home to them soon.”

She dried her tears with the sleeve of her sweater. Severus maybe had a point. Her family wouldn’t give up on her easily. Lottie didn’t give up even when she should sometimes, so wouldn’t her family do the same for her? Even so, she couldn’t help but ask, voice trembling and small, “Really?”

“Yes, Lottie,” he replied, squeezing her knee with his hand.

She nodded and inhaled deeply to calm herself the rest of the way down. When she felt a little better, she asked, “When will I go home?”

Severus’s hand fell from her knee and he turned his eyes away from Lottie, making it harder to read him. “I cannot say,” he admitted, voice pained and Lottie believed Severus. “The Unspeakables were reluctant to give a time range or date without this memory first,” he explained in a more calm tone and Lottie didn’t know then if she believed Severus anymore.

She had no proof or reason to call him a liar, though, so, she settled for sighing. “Oh.”

Severus cast her a furtive look before standing back up. “I… I do not expect it will be terribly much longer,” he offered and Lottie perked up. She wanted to believe Severus _badly_.

So, she did.

“Before Christmas?!” she demanded, bouncing a little on her bed. “I’ve already missed Calliope’s birthday,” she told Severus who seemed a little miffed by her sudden excitement when she’d been in tears just moments before. “I can’t miss more important thing, Severus!” she explained trying to sound obnoxious and silly instead of letting her anxiety and fear show.

His miffed expression turned conflicted and he murmured a noncommittal, “Perhaps.”

Lottie nodded and held back a fresh round of tears pressing on the back of her eyes. “Okay.”

Severus appeared to realize she was once again about to cry as he quickly told her, “I will make sure you have a pleasant Christmas with myself, Edie, and Ren if I cannot have you home.”

That wasn’t what she wanted to hear, but it was nice still. “Thanks.”

“…Is there something you have wanted a very long time? That I can conceivably get you?” asked Severus, eyeing her.

Lottie returned Severus’s critical eye. He must be feeling quite guilty. If it was because he felt guilty about getting her hopes or because he was lying about something, she didn’t know. However, Lottie was not about to turn down such an offer. If her Sev made one like that, she knew he’d do everything to keep it. Severus was just enough like him Lottie was confident he would do his best to get her what she wanted if she asked for it.

“A Montrose Magpies poster signed by Alasdair Maddock?” she asked, hoping as she said it that Maddock existed here.

Severus snorted. “Of course,” he muttered, only to sigh and nod. “I will see what I can do,” he said. “But, yes, I think there is a strong possibility you may find it in your stocking come Christmas.”

Lottie couldn’t stop herself. She lept from her bed and at the wizard. “Oh! Severus!” she yelled, truly jubilant. 

Severus wrapped his arms around her shoulders and squeezed her back. “Yes, yes,” he said voicing ringing with amusement. “You’re welcome, Lottie.”

-o-O-o-

"Lottie Snape!" a now all too familiar voice called to Lottie. She paused in trying to skip stones across the lake and turned her head to see one of the twins approaching from over a knoll. Lottie looked over her shoulder to Edie and Ren. They were seated under a tree some yards away from Black Lake, reading together from _Quidditch Through The Ages_. She'd opted for playing by the shore when Edie pulled it out because she'd been read from it a half-dozen times already.

Edie smiled at her as she continued to read to Ren, whose head rested in her lap, mostly hidden by the open book. Lottie felt relieved she was so far and the older boy hadn't hollered her name. If he had, she knew Edie wouldn't have missed — she squinted at the Weasley twin briefly — George calling her by her full name.

"Hi, George," she returned with a smile.

He froze a half-second before fibbing, "I'm Fred, mate."

Lottie laughed at his silly attempt to trick her. "I don't think so," she told him.

He smirked. "Ah, can't fool you, can I?" he teased.

Lottie giggled and nodded her head. "At first I was really confused!" she admitted to him. "My twin is like looking in a mirror, but the two of you are nearly clones," she explained.

George paused, eyes wider. "You have a twin?" he asked.

"Yes, her name is Eileen," she answered. "I've got two little sisters too, Essie and Calliope."

His eyes seemed to double in size. "Whoah," he said. "There's a Snape who lives with four little girls."

Lottie bit her lip. That meant he believed her, didn't it? "…You believe me about being from another reality then?" she asked in a whisper, glancing around to make sure no students were too near and that Edie and Ren hadn't ended their storytime.

"Yes," replied George. His expression turned a bit sheepish and he looked to his toes as he mumbled, "Er, about that…" Looking up at Lottie through his lashes, he admitted, "We, Fred and me, kind of had to tell Bill, our oldest brother?"

Before Lottie could say anything to assure him it was okay (because she'd always kind of expected he and Fred would tell at least _one_ brother), he apologized to her. "I'm sorry, Lottie," he said, hands wringing his wand. "We know you asked us to keep it secret but we couldn't find anything about Reality-Shifters in the non-restricted part of the library and we were _consumed_ with knowing everything about them."

Lottie had to fight down a smile. He sounded like he meant it and that was nice. She also liked that George said they'd wanted to read up on Reality-Shifters to satisfy their curiosity and not to verify she wasn't pulling their leg. As good as his apology was, she decided to play up being suspicious. "He's not gonna tell, right?" she demanded, glaring at George.

He shook his head and adamant, declared, "No!"

Lottie let her glare disappear with a blink of her eyes and shrugged. "Then, I suppose it's fine."

George seemed quite relieved to hear her say that as he stopped fidgeting with his wand and stood up a little straighter. "Thanks."

"Did you just come to say hi then?" she asked him, looking around for Fred. From what she'd seen, if one was around, the other was usually nearby.

"Mostly," agreed George, drawing Lottie's eyes back to him and ending her search. He then told Lottie, "Fred and me, though, we're curious about something new now."

Lottie emulated a skeptical Sev and Severus by arching her eyebrow (hopefully) the same way she'd seen them do a thousand times before. "Oh?" she inquired, crossing her arms.

Briefly, George stared at Lottie. He then gave a minute shake of his head and a determined expression overcame his face. "So, Professor Snape and Edie, they're your parents in your home reality?" he asked.

"Yes!" she replied, feeling a little put-out by his question. Hadn't George and Fred been listening to her at Ren's birthday party?

He was undeterred by her tone and demanded, "Married and all that?"

This time, Lottie was simply confused. "Yes?" she answered. Why did that matter? Most parents were married, weren't they?

George leaned in closer and questioned in a whisper, "The two of them here, they haven't like become a couple, have they?"

Lottie scrunched up her face. Had they? No. Severus and Edie didn't act like her parents. They did not brush against each other when passing in close spaces or exchange parting and greeting kisses. Nor did they sit on the sofa together ever and hold hands or lean into each other after trying days. Edie certainly never called Severus handsome and Severus hadn't told Edie she was beautiful once in Lottie's hearing since she arrived at Hogwarts.

"No, I don't think so," she said. For George's benefit, she elaborated. "My Edie and Sev don't do a lot of that snogging stuff I see older students do sometimes back home, but Edie and Severus haven't once been close enough to each other to even think about doing that."

George sighed. "Okay," he said, sounding a little disappointed.

Lottie cocked her head to the side. He sounded disappointed. "Why?" she asked, trying to understand what had spurred him to ask such a question.

The boy ran a hand through his hair. "Well, we're just curious, what's going to happen to her and Ren when you go home?" he told her. He squinted. "You _are_ going home, right?"

"Of course I am!" she snapped back. "Severus and the headmaster promised!"

George winced. "Sorry," he said. "That was dumb of me to say. Of course you're going home!"

"It's fine," Lottie replied, though, she didn't actually feel okay. She wondered the same more and more with each passing day. Even Severus taking her memory a couple of days ago hadn't stopped her worry from growing. " As for Edie and Ren…" she mumbled. Lottie didn't know. It wasn't something any of them often talked about. "Well, they'll stay here?" she suggested. Surely Severus wouldn't just let them go back to Knockturn Alley after all the work he did to bring them to Hogwarts. "They have rooms in Severus's quarters and everything!" she explained.

"You think so?" said George, his expression not exactly doubtful, but certainly questioning. "Where did they come from?" he asked. "I mean, they had to leave behind a whole life to be here, didn't they?"

Lottie shook her head. "It was just the two of them," she told George. "Ren says Edie danced for men in Knockturn Alley and he was in charge of watching their flat while she was gone." Maybe when Lottie was gone Edie would want to go back to doing that, but it didn't sound like a job she _had_ to live in Knockturn Alley to do. Surely Hogsmeade could use a witch who dances? Or maybe Edie could do something else, like work for Hogsmeade's sweet shop.

"I think they'll be a lot happier if they stay here with Severus!" she said. "Edie can still work close by, but that way, after his classes and on weekends, Severus can teach Ren and Edie all sorts of stuff that's important for Ren to know to be a good Hogwarts student."

George was frowning as if he didn't entirely believe her. "Really? They had no family at all?" he pressed. "I know some lost a lot of people in the war, but to be all that's left…"

She sighed and cut him off. "No, no. It's not like that," she said. "I'm pretty sure Edie's family is just like the family my Edie had. They were nasty and her uncle gave her the scar on her cheek! She ran away when she was your brother Charlie's age and a little after that she met Sev and he hired Edie to nanny my aunt, Darla."

George nodded. "Darla," he repeated slowly. "You said she's Percy's age, didn't you?"

"Yep."

George cast his gaze out on the still lake. The squid and mermaids weren't showing themselves today. Lottie wasn't surprised. It was most of the way through November now and there was a nice bite to the air she could feel on her exposed cheeks when the wind blew. The lake wasn't warm by any means, but they hated the chill of the wind much more than the water according to the headmaster.

"Professor Snape doesn't have a sister here, does he?" asked the boy.

"No," said Lottie. She furrowed her brows. Severus made it sound as if Grandmother Eileen died years before Grandfather Tobias. "I think his mum died before she could have Darla."

"Huh," said George. He eyed her. "Can I ask how old your dad was when Darla was born?"

She shrugged. Lottie didn't see why not. "Sixteen," she answered.

"That's—" George sputtered, eyes blinking rapidly a few times. "I didn't realize Professor Snape was that young."

Lottie nodded. Lots of students were surprised even back home. Edie said it was because of Darla. It had matured him a lot faster than many men his age, having to step into parenthood before he was twenty. Though… There was no Darla here. Maybe it was because he was so strict? That must be it.

No matter the reason, she enthused, "Yes! He went to school with the-boy-who-lived's parents! Isn't that wicked?"

George didn't seem to quite agree, though. "Wicked, yeah," he drawled.

Lottie huffed and crossed her arms. "Well, _I_ do."

"No, sorry. It _is_ pretty interesting," said George, sounding sincere. He exhaled and ran his hand through his hair again. "I think we're getting really off-topic."

Lottie pursed her lips. They were? She thought they were just talking now. "We are?"

He dipped his chin. "Yeah," he answered. "I just wanted to know, do you think she and Professor Snape _fancy_ each other?"

She thought about George's question. They didn't seem to right now. But that didn't mean they couldn't later, right? "They could?" she offered as she sucked her lower lip between her teeth to gnaw. "I'm not entirely sure…" she admitted. "I mean, my Edie and Sev do. I can't see why they couldn't too."

George was quiet, turning it over in his head. "Good point there, Lottie," he commented. He then gave her a winning smile. "Thanks!"

"That's all you wanted to know?" she asked, confused and a little suspicious.

"Mostly, yeah," he replied. George then sighed. "Look, you've just been around a little bit," he told her leaning in, a hand coming to rest on her shoulder. "Professor Snape isn't, no, wasn't? a great teacher. He yelled a lot, took points for every little thing…" he trailed off, and studied her.

Lottie stared back at George, jaw clenched, but otherwise showing none of her ire. She knew Severus hadn't been a good teacher. The incident with those kids had taught her that. Why else would they have tried to hurt her and Ren? It hurt, in a way, to realize another Severus was not as respectable a wizard as her dad, but she could accept it. Especially since Edie helped him to be better, to be closer to the man her dad was.

George appeared to decide it was safe to continue, as he went on and said, "After Edie sat in on his class that one day he's sort of becoming okay? Like if you trip and knock something over you don't have to be afraid you're going to lose your house ten points or end up in detention for the weekend."

Lottie narrowed her eyes. "So that's why you want Edie to stay?" she asked. "To make him stay nicer?"

George hesitated. "Well," he stammered, "yes?"

She nodded. "Okay."

He appeared surprised by her easy reply. "Okay? Really?"

"Yeah!" she said, smiling at the older boy. She had not thought to consider what things would be like when she left for home, but now that Lottie had been made to, she agreed it would be better if Edie and Ren stayed. Severus had been all alone before her. Being alone was _sad_. Severus deserved better than that.

Edie and Ren deserved to stay here too. Ren liked it, liked Severus. Edie was friends with some of the staff, Severus was showing her how to be a proper witch. They'd lose that if they went back to Knockturn Alley.

"I can help them fall in love," she told George. "Maybe that's the right thing to do anyway," she suggested. "I don't want Severus to go back to being all alone when I go home. Being alone is miserable."

George chuckled. "You are right," he said. "Being alone all of the time is pretty awful."

She beamed, feeling smug that the older boy had agreed with her. "I am right a lot."

"Wow," he said, rolling his eyes. "You have a big head for such a little girl."

Lottie puffed out her cheeks and placed her hands on her hips. "I'm not little," she complained. "I'm a big sister! I _have_ to be right most of the time."

George laughed again, eyes bright with mirth. "Good point," he said. "My older brothers always think they're right too."

"Lottie!" yelled Edie.

The two jumped, not expecting Lottie's not-mother to call for her. They both looked in her direction to see she was standing up, in one hand, she had Ren's hand. The other, _Quidditch Through The Ages_. "Sev'rus will be done with classes soon," she told her. "We should go in so we can greet him when he's done."

She smiled and hollered at the witch, "Okay!" Turning her attention back to George, she told the boy, "I think I can manage, but if I need it, you'll help me, won't you?"

He nodded. "Sure!" he said. "Have a nice night, Lottie."

"You too," she said before jogging off to join Edie and Ren, waving over her shoulder at her friend she yelled, "Say hi to Fred for me!"

-o-O-o-

Lottie and Edie were alone in the loo. She had invited the witch in after she finished with her shower to have her comb the tangles from her hair. Lottie was plenty old enough to do it herself, but it was nicer to have someone else do it. Edie was always more than happy to indulge — unlike her own. 

She supposed Lottie couldn’t be upset with her mother for that. She had an actual toddler to bathe and comb the hair of. Thankfully, Eileen was happy to do her hair in exchange for Lottie taking the time to do her own. It wasn’t _quite_ as lovely as this, but it was close.

Breathing in the still warm shower air into her lungs, Lottie stared at the tarnished gold faucet of Severus’s tub and frowned. Was now a good time to start her inquiry? She didn’t want to end this moment, but… They were alone.

They wouldn’t be again until her next shower the day after tomorrow. Sev always was telling Lottie to not put things off if she could finish them sooner. This felt like one of those things he would scold her for pushing off. Lottie gave herself the tiniest nod. Yes. She would do this now.

“Edie?” she asked, turning her head slightly. For it, the teeth of the comb Edie was using scraped against the skin of her scalp.

“Hm?” asked the witch, pulling the comb back and beginning a new stroke.

“Do you like Severus?”

She paused for a half-second before beginning to tug at a snarl anew. “Like him?” she echoed. Edie chuckled and the vibration of it carried through her full body. Lottie felt it the way the comb moved in her hair and in Edie’s thighs, where she was perched. “Yes, I suppose I do,” she agreed. “He’s been very good ter me an’ Ren.”

Lottie huffed and crossed her arms. “No, no, _fancy-_ like Severus.”

Edie stopped combing her hair. “…Where’s this comin’ from?” she asked.

Now stiff, she gave one large shrug of her shoulders. “Just curious, I guess,” she lied. “George wanted to know if when I go home, you’ll go too.” She looked over her shoulder at Edie. It was an imperfect image she saw, but her expression seemed intent and a little afraid. “He thinks you’ve made Severus kinder.”

“Yeh know I’m here at Hogwarts fer yeh, don’t yeh?” she questioned, voice strained.

Lottie rolled her eyes. Of course she did! Severus had said he’d bring Edie here for her before he went to get her. “I know that’s why Severus brought you here,” she said. “But it doesn’t have to be why you stay.”

Edie sighed and started to comb her hair again. This time, it was with quick strokes that pulled a bit at the end instead of languid ones that tickled her shoulders. “Sev’rus isn’t going ter want us overstayin’ our welcome,” she mumbled.

Lottie pursed her lips. She had a feeling they’d all been here much longer than anyone first imagined they would be. “Edie, I think we’ve all stayed much too long,” she said.

“Yeh may have a point there,” admitted.

Lottie smirked to herself. “I do,” she said, not entirely able to hide her smugness.

Edie ignored it in favor of saying, “I still don’t see me an’ Ren stayin’ here after yeh go home.”

Lottie hopped off of Edie’s lap and spun around. “Oh, but you have to!” she cried, staring into the wide-eyed face of her not-mother.

“Why?” asked the witch, expression dubious and guarded.

Lottie stuck out her lower lip. She couldn’t just _say,_ could she? “Severus will be alone,” she whispered. That was part of the reason, anyway.

Edie stood up and placed Lottie’s comb in the little basket of her things kept on the counter of the sink. “He won’t be,” she said, gaze focused on the sink’s basin instead of her reflection in the mirror above it.

Lottie couldn’t stop herself from scoffing. That was just not true! “He doesn’t have parents or siblings, and you’ve lived here almost as long as me, people don’t visit,” she reminded Edie.

She sighed again. Turning toward her, the witch’s nerves were clear in the way she worried her lip. “Lottie…”

“ _My_ Edie is married to _my_ Sev,” she said, not accusing, but close. She knew this witch wasn’t her mother any more than Severus was her father, but it was hard sometimes to remember. To not feel angry they could look and be so much like them and dare _not_ to be her parents.

Edie’s expression turned sad. “Their lives were very different I reckon,” she whispered.

It was true. Her parents had led very different lives from Edie and Severus. They still felt like her parents, though. In the way that counted the most. “ _You_ aren’t terribly different,” Lottie replied, reaching out to squeeze the witch’s fingers.

Edie let her. Then, she lifted her hand and patted the top of Lottie’s still damp head. “I’m done with yer hair,” she said, ending their conversation. “Go put on yer jimjams an’ I’ll read yeh an’ Ren a story.”

Lottie bit her lip. She felt sort of bad now. She hadn’t meant to make Edie sad, to think of all she didn’t have compared to her mum. “Edie?” she asked.

The witch sighed again. “Yes, Lottie?”

“You do like it here, don’t you?” she asked, staring down at her pink, bare toenails. The last of the blue varnish Darla had painted on them at the beginning of the school year chipped off last week. She’d cried a bit about it when she was in the shower alone. “Me an’ Severus, we don’t make you miserable?”

Edie knelt down and wrapped her arms around Lottie. “Every day’s been a dream,” she said into her hair. “And no, yeh could never.”

She nodded against the witch’s shoulder. “Okay,” she said. Then after a beat, asked again, “Edie?”

The witch groaned and pulled back. “Lottie, Ren is goin’ ter be upset if we keep him waitin’ much longer,” she chided.

She licked her lips. Lottie hadn’t thought it would be possible, once she realized how different Edie was from her mum, but now? She knew it was. “I… I love you,” she stammered out, cheeks flushing hotly.

Edie’s grew. Then tears gathered in the corners as she warbled, “Oh, my swee’.” Edie pulled Lottie back against her, fingers threading through her hair. “C’mere,” she mumbled the crown of her head. “I love yeh too,” she whispered.

Lottie lifted her arms and twined them around Edie’s neck. Holding tight, she didn’t care that her mum and dad, siblings, and Darla, were a reality away. Edie and her love were enough for a moment.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading and please let me know your thoughts with a comment and/or kudo!


	16. Splendid News

The first dusting of snow on Hogwarts’s grounds came with the first of December. Severus found it quite irksome. One would think a little frozen water wouldn’t be quite so interesting but for the students, it was captivating. Even when they were in his classroom, in the dungeon, without a window in sight. 

Today was supposed to be a simple day. Severus had planned to give a lecture on native plants of Britain and Ireland to his first-year students and then end the class with assigning the children an essay on the subject. However, he’d cut the lesson short due to a budding migraine and informed them of their essay early and recommended they use the rest of their class time to work on it.

Of course, as Severus had learned to expect over the years, the children did not listen very well. Instead of using the extra time he gave them to their advantage, many of the little dunderheads were rabbiting among themselves about their plans for the paltry snow outside later. Severus, seated at his desk, face hidden behind a textbook, was considering putting an end to their misuse of his generous gift. Would a scolding be enough? Taking points would likely be a step too far in Edie’s opinion. It wasn’t as if Severus said they _must_ use this time to work on their essay. He’d simply advised it.

Before he could come to a decision, he was interrupted by the sound of shuffling in front of his desk. He put his textbook down to see it was Roger Davies. The boy had proven over the last couple of months to be much bolder than his elder brother had ever been. He raised his hand in classes frequently and could be found around the school conversing with a variety of students. Severus had yet to decide if he liked him or not. His gregarious nature could spell trouble later, but it was all innocent now.

“What can I do for you Mr. Davies?” he asked.

Davies pushed his fringe from his eyes. “Um,” he started. “I want to write my essay on the usefulness of asphodel, but I’m not seeing a lot in our textbooks?”

Severus nodded. Asphodel was used in a variety of potions, most notably, the Draught of the Living Dead. However, many of those same potions were deemed a tad advanced for first-year students to be learning. He gestured toward the cabinet where he kept a few extra copies of the textbooks he taught from for absentminded students to borrow. “I have a few texts from upper-year classes there,” he said to the boy. “You may look through them.”

Davies’s unease faded and a small grin brought a dimple to his left cheek. “Thank you, sir,” he said. As the boy turned to go to take a look at the available texts, Severus felt something close to relief take him.

Perhaps Roger was more outgoing than his brother, Chester, but he was just as obedient. Severus felt compelled to award him for his good behavior. “Davies,” he said, drawing the child’s brown-eyed gaze to him. “Five points to Ravenclaw,” he told the boy. “For using your time productively.” He cast his gaze out on the child’s classmates. “ _Unlike others_ ,” he finished, voice raised and chiding.

A few seated nearer his desk froze for a split second. Their expression turned guilty then and they started to shuffle through their textbooks or satchels in search of quills and parchment. As for Roger Davies, he nodded, barely suppressed surprise on his face. “Of course, Professor,” he replied.

Satisfied that maybe this free time he’d given his students wouldn’t be entirely a waste for all of them, Severus picked up his textbook and returned to waiting for the hour to be over so he could privately take a pain potion to stop his migraine.

-o-O-o-

When classes were finished for the day, Severus did not go immediately back to his quarters. As much as he’d have preferred to, he needed to put the final preparations in place for his fourth year’s potion lab tomorrow. It took longer than Severus expected and when he thought to check the time, he saw it was well into dinnertime. Internally, he swore and hurried to his quarters.

Edie was always understanding about his occasional tardiness, but the children… They didn’t _say_ anything, but Severus could see it in the way they looked at him when he sat down to eat when they were nearly done with their own meals. They felt disappointed when he was late as it meant they had less time to tell him about their days and the thoughts that had filtered through their little minds over the course of it. Severus had never believed before he would care what a child thought of him, but Lottie and Ren had come to prove him wrong in the last month. 

It was odd, but it did not upset him. Nor was he frightened. Anxious, perhaps. Severus knew it would all end the instant Lottie’s home reality was identified by the Unspeakables on her case. However, he could keep it out of his mind for now. Everything pointed to her departure being a long while away. 

Coming to the portrait that separated his quarters from the school’s corridors, Severus went through the motions of letting himself in. When he stepped in, he immediately began to shed his outer robe. “Edie,” he called. “How have the children—”

“Severus!” cried Lottie, all but bowling him over. He looked down at her. The girl’s face was flushed and a wide smile made her eyes glitter like sunlight on the Black Lake. “Severus, there’s been splendid news!” she told him.

He raised an eyebrow. “Oh?”

“Yes, little Lottie is correct.”

Severus stilled. When he lifted his face from that of the girl’s, he saw the headmaster was perched on his quarter’s sofa, a teacup and saucer on his knee. Next to him, sat Ren. The boy was happily swinging his feet and licking a lollipop. Behind the pair was Edie. Her expression was pleasant on the surface, but from the way she wrung her wand in her hands, Severus knew she was nervous. 

His earlier migraine began to throb behind his eyes once again. 

“What is this news?” he asked as he all but picked up Lottie and brought them nearer to the headmaster in the lounge area of the main room. 

The headmaster’s smirk was triumphant as he said, “It seems Lottie’s memory of the reality shifter was far more useful than we dared to dream.”

His empty stomach’s bile rose like a tide into his throat before falling back down like stone. “Was it now?” he replied, his voice smooth and unmarred by the turmoil he suddenly found himself in.

The old man nodded his head. “While I could go into great detail about how they used the light and shadows of Lottie’s Hogwarts to calculate which reality was hers, I do not think it is something you would appreciate at this time,” he explained with a light chuckle.

Severus wouldn’t. Not now. Perhaps never. “No, I would not!” he said, his tone less even and edging on strained.

Albus did not react to his change in inflection and remarked, “They have greatly narrowed down the universes. They imagine they will have her back home a little before or after Christmas.”

Severus struggled and, in the end, failed to entirely hide the shock he was feeling from his face. “That’s three weeks from now,” he murmured.

The headmaster’s smirk softened into something akin to sympathetic. Severus balled his hands at his sides. “It is a brilliant stroke of luck, I admit,” he said, not quite chiding, but near enough. He felt (and Severus knew) he should not be hinting at any dismay now. Not when it was clear Lottie was overjoyed. She was vibrating beside him, eyes darting from Albus to him, to Edie. She was drinking their reactions, looking to find comradery, and a shared happiness to revel in.

He brightened his tone. “Three weeks…” he repeated. “It is no time at all,” he proclaimed, shooting a barely mustered together smirk at Lottie. Thankfully, the child did not seem to notice and beamed in return.

“Ah, that is what you say now!” said the headmaster. Rising to his feet, Albus handed his empty cup and saucer to Edie. Clapping a hand on Severus’s shoulder, he gave it a consolatory squeeze. “Enjoy your next few weeks with Lottie,” he advised.

“Yes, of course,” murmured Severus.

Albus turned to Edie, Ren, and Lottie. “Have a good evening, Ms. Edie, children,” he said to them all before going to Severus’s hearth and taking a fistful of floo powder in his hand. He turned his gaze on Severus one last time. “Severus, if you like, we can discuss this more tomorrow,” he offered.

Severus dipped his chin in decisive agreement. “We will,” he replied.

“Bye, professor!” yelled Ren after pulling his lollipop from his mouth. He waved the half-eaten candy in the air. “Thank you for the lollipops and news.”

Inside his fireplace, the headmaster grinned at the boy. “You’re welcome, Mr. Ren.” Albus then called for his office as he threw down the powder in his hand. Seconds later, he was gone and it was Severus, Edie, and the children alone. 

He went and sat down on the sofa. Lottie tugged at his hand. “You need to eat,” she said. “It’s dinnertime.”

He rolled his eyes in mild amusement. That had become one of Lottie’s obsessions as of late, making sure he ate something at every meal. He had to wonder if her father was a stockier man. If Lottie was half as insistent with him as she was with Severus, he imagined she must be. “Yes, yes,” he agreed. “Why don’t you and Ren go get whatever it is you worked on today to show me while I eat?”

Lottie gasped, delighted, and grabbed her brother’s hand. “Come on,” she said. “We left our exercises in your room.”

When the children were gone from the room, he placed his face in his hands and groaned. “Three bloody weeks,” he cursed. Severus knew from the start he didn’t have forever with Lottie, but he’d thought there would be more time than _that_.

“Yeh seem surprised,” murmured Edie. He nearly jumped when she laid a tentative hand on his back.

He nodded and twisted his face around to look up at the witch. “The last we spoke, the headmaster made it sound as if it would be several more months at least.”

Edie blinked. “Several?” she repeated. Eyes wide, she whispered, “Yeh would o’ kept us here tha’ long?”

He frowned, unsure if he understood her correctly. Yes, he had planned to have Edie here until Lottie’s return home. Perhaps she had not realized it was initially to be such a long assignment? “…I suppose if you had wished, we could have renegotiated the terms of your employment?” he told her.

He sighed. “Lottie’s happiness is — was — my greatest concern, but I would not have wished you to be miserable for her sake,” he told her, returning his gaze to his knees. He hadn’t imagined she’d want to go back to Knockturn Alley at any point. It was a dreary place and even after Lottie left, Severus hoped Edie would let him help her to relocate to a little wizarding village, like Hogsmeade. A place where she could find proper employment with the right references and keep in close contact with her to ensure when it came time for Ren to go to Hogwarts, he would be prepared.

“No, no, it would've’ been fine,” Edie assured him, walking around the sofa to sit down beside him. Severus stilled when her thigh brushed against his own as she settled in. “I’m surprised, is all,” she admitted to him. Expression shy, she told Severus, “Yeh must find it annoyin’ ter have us all here when yeh were used ter quiet an’ havin’ so much more freedom.” Her gaze connected with his and Severus was made to stare into her shimmering sun-gold irises as she said, “Ter think yeh’d have hosted us so much longer without complaint…”

Severus’s mouth was dry. “You three have not been annoying,” he lied.

Edie, who understood Severus and his tells far too well for a woman who’d known him no time at all, raised a single eyebrow. “Sev’rus,” she murmured.

He exhaled and ripped his gaze away. “Well, not usually,” he grumbled. Tracing a finger over one of the sofa’s pinstripes, he said, “You have all, surprisingly, slotted yourselves quite seamlessly into my life. Also,” he glanced up at Edie and smirked at her. “I imagine even you must find us irritating from time to time.”

She laughed aloud, unashamed. “Yeh got me,” she agreed. “Now come ter the dinner table,” she urged as she rose to her feet, offering a hand to him. “The headmaster visited right before we were goin’ ter eat.”

Severus stared briefly at her short, almost child-sized fingers. He took them. Severus used the witch as leverage to stand beside her. With reluctance he then let Edie’s fingers go. The sensation of her warm, labor-roughened fingerpads remained imprinted on his palm as he remarked, “How fortuitous.”

-O-

Severus was not paying the children or Edie much mind for the moment. He was far more concerned with correcting the surprise quiz he’d given his NEWT students today. However, he was forced to shift his attention when Lottie proclaimed, “I want Severus to tuck me in.”

He looked up from Kamal Kumar’s quiz and at the little girl. She was next to Edie, her wet hair freshly plaited. Ren was not in sight. However, if Severus listened, he could hear down the hall, in the water closet, the boy splashing in the tub. 

“Oh?” he said. The girl’s expression turned stern and he smothered a chortle. He found the expression on Lottie’s face inexplicably familiar. It brought to mind his mother. It was odd.

He had not thought of his mother fondly in a long while.

“Is there any particular reason?” asked Edie, ever patient with the girl and Severus. Standing up, she took Lottie's hairbrush and placed it on the little table he kept next to the opening of the short hallway that led to his room and the quarter’s loo.

Lottie’s expression grew more mulish. “I want him to,” she insisted. “You’ll put me to bed, won’t you?” she demanded, eyes snapping to Severus.

Severus thought she was perhaps being a little curt over a benign inquiry, but he looked at Edie and she shrugged. Seeing she felt no hurt from Lottie’s attitude, Severus agreed. “Yes,” he said. “I will put you to bed,” he agreed. “Say goodnight to Edie, hm?”

The girls’ demeanor changed with a blink of Severus’s eyes. Lottie skipped to Edie and raised herself on her toes to lay a kiss on the witch’s chin. “Night, Edie,” she said.

Edie returned the affection by brushing her fingers over the girl’s plaits. “Swee’ dreams,” she murmured.

Getting up from behind his desk, Severus drew back the curtain that hid Lottie’s room and made a sweeping gesture for the girl to go in. Lottie smiled at him for his efforts and went in. Severus followed after. He stood off to the side as she pulled back her duvet and got beneath it. When she laid back and turned her head toward him, he moved to tuck her in. 

As Severus pulled the duvet up to the girl’s chin, Lottie declared, “You should ask Edie to marry you.”

Severus’s hands froze. “Pardon?” he replied before the words fully registered in his mind.

Lottie’s lower lip stuck out in a pout. “Ask Edie to marry you.”

He sighed and sat down on the edge of the girl’s bed. Severus didn’t think he would be leaving her room soon. “What in Merlin’s name has brought this madness on?” he asked.

“I’m not mad,” grumbled Lottie, pout turning into a scowl. “I just figured it’d be a good idea since I’m not going to be here terribly much longer,” she said. Lottie narrowed her eyes with suspicion. “Right?”

“Possibly,” he replied. He had yet to speak to the headmaster about this sudden shortening of the timeline for Lottie’s return home. Tomorrow he would be able to answer with confidence, until then, he would be vague. “I still am not following,” he said to her. “How is your future-leaving a cause for me to propose?”

Her glare lessened and Lottie’s fingers appeared over the edge of her duvet. Picking at a button that kept the cover of it closed over the blanket, she mumbled, “Edie might think she needs to leave if you don’t.”

“Hm,” grunted Severus. Truth be told, Lottie’s words had brought dread upon him. That would be what happened, wouldn’t it? Edie was going to insist she and Ren must return to their old life if he didn’t find a reason for her to stay closer.

“…You don’t want her and Ren to leave, do you?” asked Lottie after a short rest. She furrowed her fine brows. “I know you didn’t want me, and you brought Edie and Ren here because of me, but I thought you liked us now.”

Severus felt the corners of his lips twitch with amusement. He tamped it down and told Lottie in a falsely reluctant voice, “Your company is not disagreeable.”

She did not play along with his teasing. Instead, she told him in a solemn whisper, “You’ll be lonely if you don’t.”

He could not help but feel affronted. “I will not,” he denied.

Her small face fell and she reached up, fingertips brushing his cheek before he pulled back. “Severus,” she insisted.

He pursed his lips. It seemed the girl was not going to let this go. She was very intent on this and Severus was not sure how to answer Lottie. He wasn’t sure he knew the answer himself. “Lottie, marriage does not have to involve love, but I think that is something Edie deserves, don’t you?” he questioned.

Lottie wrinkled her nose. “You don’t love her?”

Did he? Severus was not sure. He liked her presence. However, what he felt did not much remind him of what he felt for Lily. Or his mother, for that matter. It was… New. “I have grown fond of her company,” he admitted in the end. That, he thought, was a fairly honest answer. It was comfortable to mark exams and essays in the lounge after the children were asleep with her nearby on the sofa, legs laid across the length of it, reading.

Lottie smirked, satisfied. “See!” she insisted. “You fancy her.” 

He pinched the bridge of his nose. “That is not it at all,” he said. Reaching out, he cupped the girl’s face in his hands and stared into her determined eyes. “Lottie, even if _I_ care for her as more than an employee, she may not feel anything beyond an appreciation for me as her employer,” he told her.

Lottie reached up and pushed his hands off. Squirming out from under her duvet she sat upright and said, “I know she thinks you're brilliant.”

He wasn’t sure he believed Lottie. Severus tilted his head and squinted at the girl with an expression he hoped was only a touch fierce. He didn’t want to scare her too much now. Lottie had to sleep soon and he didn’t want her having nightmares. “Do you?”

She bobbed her head vigorously. “Yes! She says you’re very good to her.”

That sounded more like Edie. He exhaled and lifted up Lottie’s blanket, urging her to lay down again. “Unfortunately, I believe Edie has a very low bar for ‘good’,” he said.

She laid down again and turned on her side. Nuzzling into her pillow, she mumbled, “Well, I don’t.” As Severus tucked the duvet back beneath her chin, Lottie said, “ _I_ know you’ve been _extra_ good. You treat me an’ Ren like we’re both yours even though I’m the only one who’s your child in a different reality. You talk and listen to Edie the way I’ve watched Sev treat my Edie all my life. Severus, you and my dad aren’t the same, but _I know you_.” Her small face was uncomfortably intense as she declared, “We’re your family.” 

Severus couldn’t bite his tongue fast enough and snapped, “Except you are not.”

Lottie wasn’t quailed by his harsh tone. However, she did seem saddened. “I can’t stay,” she mumbled. A finger popping out from under her blanket, she began to trace the pattern in her sheets. “When I can go home, whether it’s tomorrow, a month from now, or even ten years from next Tuesday, I will go.” She stretched her neck and pressed her lips to his knuckles which rested centimeters from her face. Severus resisted the urge to pull back. The kiss felt hot on his clammy skin, but it did not burn. “I love you, but I can’t leave my family wondering forever where I went and if I’m happy and safe, or hurt and sad, or just dead.”

Severus felt at a loss. What right did a child have to be so articulate? To make him feel so ashamed? “I agree with you, Lottie,” he said after a time. Severus swallowed; it was harder to believe with each passing day with the girl, but she was right. “Your family should have you back.”

“I _have_ to,” the girl repeated. Severus felt mildly irked and was going to say something, but Lottie didn’t give him the chance. “Lottie and Ren? They could stay with you, though,” she said.

Severus couldn’t ask Edie to. He’d never know if she truly wanted to stay or felt she had to for Ren’s future. “Edie already feels too obligated to me,” he explained. “If I ask, how am I to know if it’s because of what she wants or because she feels she must as a repayment for Ren’s future?”

The little girl’s face grew tense and Severus sighed. “I’m sorry, Lottie,” he murmured. “That is not a question I mean for you to answer.” He cupped the side of her head a second before pulling back and standing up. “Sleep well,” he urged. “What happens after you leave is not your worry.”

Lottie stared up at him. “I don’t want you all to be sad,” she said, voice cracking.

Severus chuckled. “How could we be?” he asked. “You are going to leave us with many fine memories of you and the knowledge _you_ will be happy and safe where you belong.”

The girl smiled, relieved. “Okay,” she said.

“Goodnight, Lottie,” Severus said, walking toward the curtain.

She yawned. “Night, Severus.”

Stepping out of her room, Severus relaxed when he saw Edie was not in sight. Walking over to her and Ren’s bedrooms, he popped his head into the boy’s room. Severus and Lottie must have spoken longer than he thought. Ren was already dressed and tucked underneath his own duvet, Edie smoothing it over with her hands. A glance at Ren’s face showed his eyes were closed.

“Is he asleep?” asked Severus in a whisper.

Edie nodded and stepped away. Joining him in the doorway, she brushed past and closed Ren’s bedroom door. “Nearly.” She looked up. “Was there a special reason Lottie wanted yeh ter tuck her in?” she asked.

Severus contemplated lying outright. Instead, he opted for a half-truth. “Lottie wanted to ask me about my plans after she is gone. The headmaster’s news has left her a little fretful.”

Edie didn’t look at him. “Wha’ are yer plans?” she questioned.

He pursed his lips. Severus didn’t know for certain. He pictured that things would carry on mostly as they did now. If Edie and Ren would continue their new, typical routine here or not… Well, it was too early to say. Severus wasn’t sure he could or should ask Edie to stay yet. To avoid any embarrassing gaffes he answered only for his future specifically.

“I imagine things will stay rather similar,” he admitted. “Just without Lottie’s presence.”

Edie’s posture was stiff. “I see,” she said with a small nod of her head.

Severus wasn’t sure how to take her words. She didn’t come off as cross to Severus, nor did Edie appear calmed by his answer. She was blank. Carefully so. He shook his head and chose to ignore it for the time being.

“Nevermind that,” he said instead. “It is weeks from now. We must focus instead on ensuring things carry on as normally as possible until then.”

The witch smiled at him then. Though, it felt off to Severus. “Of course,” she replied. “I imagine yeh should finish gradin’ yer quizzes, hm?”

He snorted. “Yes, I suppose you’re right,” he answered. Severus smirked at her. “I suggest you return to reading on intermediate charms. They are some of the most useful out there for a witch like yourself.”

“Ah,” said Edie. “Tha’ is helpful ter know,” she said. “I will make sure ter pay close attention,” she promised as she went to sit down on the sofa. Picking up the text, she said, “I’m sure I will make frequent use o’ them after Lottie’s departure.”

Severus nodded as he took a seat behind his chair. “We can practice later,” he said. “I only have a handful more quizzes to grade.”

Edie nodded. “Thank yeh,” she said. “I appreciate it.”

“It is no trouble,” replied Severus. “I am proud to help you take your right as a witch in your hands.”

The witch flashed him a smile. She then opened her textbook. Severus took that as his cue to start grading. Soon, the only sound in the room was his quill on the parchment and the whisper of Edie turning the pages of her book.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Lottie will be going home very soon! We've finally reached the last stretch of this story :)
> 
> Thanks for reading and please let me know your thoughts with a comment and/or kudo!


	17. Good Intentions, Troubling Results

Slipping away from Edie had been quite easy. Far easier than it was to get out from under her own Edie’s sharp eye. It was quite funny to Lottie, but she also felt a little resentful. If it’d been Ren to walk off, she was sure Edie would have noticed in no time. Lottie chose not to dwell on that small feeling. She’d be back home to her Edie who was _never_ going to let her out of her sight again soon.

Keeping near the walls and doing as little to draw attention to herself as she moved through the corridors, Lottie kept her eyes wide open for the sight of two gingers. Mostly, no one noticed her. A couple of students who did see her smiled and waved. Lottie returned the friendly gestures. She was happy they were being nice to her. It had to mean Severus’s adjustments to his teaching method were working. 

After a while, Lottie began to grow a little frustrated. She’d made sure to pay close attention to the schedules of Gryffindor first years. They should be around this part of the castle at this time of the day. Feeling it might be time to give up and start asking the portraits for directions back to Edie, she passed the first year written exams room. After she did, Lottie backtracked a step. The door was open. 

That wasn’t right. It wasn’t time for the first years mid-term exams yet. Peering inside she felt a grin split across her face. There were the twins!

Bounding in, Lottie yelled, “I’m to go home soon!”

The twins, and the older redhead they were with, all jumped at her bellow. “Hello to you too,” grumbled the non-twin redhead.

“Sorry,” she apologized, wincing a little at his tone. Turning to the twins who wore less sour expressions, she said, “Hi, George, Fred.” she squinted at the other boy. He was wearing glasses and had his arms crossed. “Charlie?” she offered, uncertain. She didn’t think he was, but she also didn’t remember the name of the twins’ other younger older brother.

He blinked. “I’m Percy,” he corrected.

Lottie nodded. “Sorry.”

The corners of his mouth quirked in a small smile and his arms fell loosely to his side. “I have to say, it’s a first,” he told Lottie.

“Yeah,” joined in Fred. Smirking, he joked, “Perce isn’t half as cool-looking as Charlie.” 

George made a noise of agreement before leaning in and saying, “Charlie pierced his ear in September on a dare, you know that?”

She gasped, awed. She didn’t know you could pierce your ears without your parents’ permission. “No,” she replied.

Percy’s bit of good humor vanished and he snarled, “Shut up, Fred!”

Fred returned the snarl with a scowl of his own and Lottie felt a desperate need to get rid of the tension. Thinking hard for something nice to say, she remembered that she _did_ know of Percy back home. Darla had talked about him a few times. “It’s okay!” she assured the older boy. “Dar— _Somebody_ thinks you’re brill even without an earring,” she stammered. Percy’s glower lessened and the twins gave her wide-eyed looks of confusion. 

Now that she had his attention, she said, “You bother Severus by knowing answers and doing well in his class! You’re so good at that stuff he _has_ to give you points and you’re never misbehaved either in his class either, so he can’t take them away ever too.” The twins were gaping at Lottie while Percy was smirking to himself. “Severus doesn’t like helping Gryffindor,” she babbled like he didn’t already know. “You’re his house’s biggest rival!”

“Well,” replied Percy, stunned. He looked at the twins out of the corners of his eyes. “Isn’t that interesting?”

George rolled his eyes at his older brother. “Don’t let it go to your already fat head, Percy.”

Percy sneered at him. “I wouldn’t _dream_ of it, George.”

“You bother Severus in your own ways, George and Fred,” offered Lottie. She wasn’t sure, but she almost thought they seemed _jealous_ of Percy being a source of ire for Severus.

Percy laughed at that as the twins made noises that were definitely not happy. “I’m sure they do,” he said.

Fred gave a quiet growl and exchanged a look with George. He nodded at Fred and, together, they began to push their older brother toward the still open door. “Get out of here, Percy,” demanded Fred. “Lottie wants to talk to _us_ , not you.”

“Humph!” mumbled Percy as he stumbled over his own feet and out the open door. Turning around, he gave them all a sharp glare. “Fine, whatever,” he huffed at them. “I’ve heard plenty,” he gloated. “No doubt more will come up soon! It’s not like Professor Snape will be able to hide Lottie suddenly disappearing.” With that, he walked off and George slammed the exam room door shut.

“Berk,” grumbled Fred to them.

Lottie shrugged. Percy hadn’t been wrong. “He has a point.”

George raised an eyebrow at her, incredulous. “Do you really want him to know about you being from a different reality?” he asked. “We’ve only told Bill.”

Lottie couldn’t help herself. She grinned. “I’m not sure it matters anymore,” she said. Jumping up and down a little, she exclaimed, “I’ll be home in three weeks!”

“Three weeks!” he exclaimed, hands flying to his cheeks. George then grinned at an equally delighted Fred. “Just in time for the holidays,” he said while Fred remarked:

“You’re quite lucky, aren’t you?”

Lottie wasn’t sure yet if she was lucky, but she was very hopeful. “Maybe,” she replied. “It could be right after instead.”

They nodded their understanding before George reached over and gave her back a friendly pat. “Either way, cheers, Lottie,” he said. “We’re very happy for you.”

“Thanks!” she chirped.

“Is this all you wanted to talk about then?” asked Fred, shifting like he wanted to head for the door. “I don’t think we had much reason to kick out Percy after all.”

Lottie chewed the inside of her cheek a moment. “Well, no,” she admitted. Except that was why she sought them out. It was only now Lottie realized the twins could be very helpful with her self-imposed mission. They were awfully clever. “I’ve been trying to convince Severus and Edie to get married, you see…”

They gasped aloud. “Married?” echoed George.

“Are they even dating?” Fred asked at the same time.

Lottie pursed her lips. She couldn’t lie and say they were, could she? No, not even if she kind of hoped they were and they sort of acted like they were sometimes.“…Not _really_ ,” she admitted, but before their expressions could fall, she declared, “But they could be!”

“How do we come in?” asked Fred, crossing his arms and cocking his head as George nodded alongside him.

Lottie scowled, recalling her failed conversations with Severus and Edie and how they’d refused to do anything at all to remedy Lottie’s coming departure and their changing circumstances. “I tried to get them both to agree to talk to the other about Edie stayin’, but they wouldn’t!” she complained.

George leaned in, brows knit together. “She wants to stay, right?”

“And Professor Snape wants her to?” added Fred, expression skeptical.

Lottie stamped a foot and flared her nostrils at the pair. What a silly question! She wouldn’t be trying to get their help if one or the other didn’t want Edie to stay at Hogwarts. “Yes!” she snapped.

“Okay, we just wanted to check,” muttered Fred, putting up a pair of shielding hands in front of himself and George.

“Yeah,” agreed George. He was calmer than Fred and his lips pulled thin for a brief moment before he said, “We get they’re sort of your parents, but they'ren't here.”

Lottie bobbed her head. She did know that. Better and more painfully than anyone else she suspected. She didn’t say anything about that, though. She was afraid it’d bring on the stupid tears she was always just keeping at bay. “I know.” 

“So what do you need from us?” Fred questioned, narrowing his eyes. “You _do_ have a plan, don’t you?”

She nodded. “I do,” she agreed. Then, Lottie asked, “Can you help me lock them in a room so they have to talk?”

George and Fred looked at each other and Lottie frowned, not pleased by their hesitation to agree. George stepped forward and placed a hand on her arm. “I don’t think they’d talk about that, Lottie,” he told her, fingers wrapping around her arm and squeezing it. “This isn’t a comic.”

Fred, taking up the spot right behind his twin, sighed and crossed his arms. “What they’d probably spend the whole time discussing is how to punish you — and us.”

Lottie stuck out her lip. They _maybe_ had a point, but how else could they force Severus and Edie to talk? She voiced this question to the twins. “Then how can I get them to talk about Edie staying after I leave?”

George looked over his shoulder at Fred. Lottie felt frustrated she could only see Fred’s face, but she was still compelled to lean in when a smirk overtook his features. “Fred, are you thinking what I am?” asked George.

Fred nodded. “Truth serum?”

“You are!” exclaimed George, voice bright.

Lottie scrunched up her face. Truth serum? She knew about that stuff. Sev had taught her about it a little. “Isn’t Veritaserum controlled by the Ministry?” she asked. Maybe they just didn’t know? They _were_ first years. She was also pretty sure she’d heard someone at Ren’s party say their dad worked in the Misuse of Muggle Artefacts department at the Ministry. There was a strong chance it wasn’t something they’d learned yet.

George turned his head around to meet Lottie’s dubious frown. “The stuff that makes you spill your guts, yes,” he agreed.

Lottie felt confused. They weren’t talking about the same potion? “What kind are you two talking abou then?” she asked.

Fred answered for the two. “A watered-down version that we can actually make,” he said.

“You don’t want Veritaserum anyway,” assured George to Lottie. “I bet Professor Snape would know right away it’s being used on him.”

Lottie was quiet a moment. “He would,” she admitted. Sev and Severus, it seemed, had brewed a lot of potions and knew even more.

“See?” said Fred, which earned him a glare from Lottie.

“We’re going to make you a weaker version,” said George, distracting Lottie from her annoyance with Fred.

“Yes, George is right,” said Fred. “It’ll be a version that will make them feel like they should be a little more honest, but not so much Snape will be tipped off you slipped him some in his tea or dinner.”

Lottie felt a little thrill run through her. As well as a lot of admiration. She and the twins hardly knew one another, but they were going to help her _this_ much? That was terribly kind. “Really? You’d do that for me?” she asked.

Fred nodded, face abruptly somber. “We quite like you, Lottie.”

“You remind us a bit of our sister,” said George.

Fred shifted his gaze away and tilted his head up slightly. “Also, Snape’s a nicer professor with you three around,” he said.

“We’ll help make sure he stays that way if we can,” continued George, smiling at her.

She returned the smile. “Thank you!”

“You’re welcome, Lottie,” replied George.

Lottie looked to the door. The twins had agreed to help and she’d been away in “the bathroom” quite a long time now. “I got to go now, but I’ll find you again later,” she told the twins.

“Sure,” said George, stepping back to stand side-by-side with Fred. They let her lead the way to the door, opening it to the currently empty corridor outside. George swiveled his head around and frowned. Looking down at her, he asked, “Where is Edie or Snape? I don’t see them around.”

Lottie suddenly found the toes of her shoes to be awfully dirty. Perhaps she should ask Severus or Edie to use a shining spell on them. “Oh, they aren’t here,” she mumbled.

“Sorry?” sputtered Fred. “They let you wander up and down Hogwarts looking for us? After what happened in the library?”

Lottie scowled at her shoes harder. They were not just dirty, but scuffed. They’d need more than just a shoe-shining spell to make them nice again. “I sort of snuck away,” she admitted. “We’re supposed to be on our way to visit Professor McGonagall!” Lottie explained, looking up at the two. “She’s going to show Edie some spells in her office.” At their critical looks, she grumbled, “I _do_ know where her office is and how to get there without running into a bunch of students.”

George sighed. “That’s great,” he said, which made Lottie feel a little less tense. Then the taut pull on her muscles doubled when he questioned, “Don’t you think she noticed you ran off though?”

“She’s probably not even at McGonagall’s office,” remarked Fred. “I bet she’s walking up and down corridors looking all over for you.”

“I told Ren to act like I ducked off to the loo,” she mumbled, tucking her chin against her chest.

Fred leaned down and met her gaze directly with wide, empathetic eyes. “She’s got to be out of her mind, Lottie.”

“It’s fine!” huffed Lottie. “I know Hogwarts better’n even the Headmaster!”

“That’s a pretty big boast for a little girl,” teased George.”

Lottie couldn’t help herself. She stuck her tongue out at the boy. “Nyah!”

Fred looked to the ceiling and groaned. “Don’t,” he begged. “You’ll start a face-pulling contest doing that.”

Lottie blinked. That sounded like fun. To be sure, however, she asked, “What’s that.”

“It’s—” began George only for Fred to slap a hand over his twin’s mouth.

“Nevermind that,” he declared. “Come on, we’ll help you find Edie before she finds you.”

-O-

“Charlotte!” shouted Edie the moment her eyes landed on Lottie. Her whole person was in disarray. Edie, usually so calm and composed, was red in the face with a misty forehead. Her hair, which she most often kept laying down in front of her shoulders to hide a little of her scar, was tied in a haphazard bunch at the nape of her neck. In her hands were her wand and the hand of a sweaty, disgruntled Ren.

Lottie bit her lip, he was glaring at her. Obviously, the short time she was “missing” had not been fun for her brother. A glance at Edie’s expression told Lottie quite a lot too. She was not just worried or scared, she was _angry_. That wasn’t good.

It took a lot to make her mum Edie truly furious. A lot like pushing your little sister off the sofa the two of you weren’t supposed to be jumping on in the first place and her breaking her wrist in the fall. Lottie had just been glad when _that_ happened she knew her parents didn’t do punishments like whipping. Lottie didn’t feel that comfort now.

Edie was a different person. She’d seen her twist Ren’s ear. Spanking might be on the table. Or, possibly, even something _worse_. Darla’s friend Stephen once shared a story his aunt told him to her. In it, she’d gotten her knuckles rapped with a ruler for passing notes in class. It had felt like a mean punishment for something so little, but Lottie thought if Edie did that to her now, it would probably be more than fair.

Lottie had not just hidden away for a minute behind a statue as a trick, but been away for long enough for Edie to work herself into a right panic.

When Edie was in front of her and the twins, she hanged her head and mumbled, “Sorry.”

“Where in Merlin’s name did yeh go?” demanded Edie, grabbing her none-too-gently by the jaw and making her meet her gaze.

Lottie could only stare into the witch’s enraged eyes a moment before she had to look away. Deciding to stick with the lie she told Ren, she said, forced to mumble by Edie’s immobilizing grip, “I was just going to the loo.” Edie’s fingers slackened in their grip slightly and Lottie told her, more clearly, “I saw Fred an’ George on my way back.”

Fred jumped in then. His tone was anxious as he half-fibbed to Edie, “We wouldn’t have let her chat with us if we knew you didn’t know where she was.”

“We’re very sorry Edie,” added in George.

Edie’s glare softened in her brows. “I’m not cross with yeh boys,” she said. Re-pocketing her wand, she reached out and none-too-gently, grabbed Lottie by her robe. “Yeh! On the other hand…”

“I said sorry!” cried Lottie, struggling. She’d much rather Edie hold her hand rather than by her robe. It’d make her feel loved still. No matter how cross her parents were, they always held onto Lottie.

Edie shook her, making Lottie still in her squirming. “Wait until Sev’rus is done with his classes,” she hissed. “This is unacceptable!”

Lottie, who was tired of being scolded for something that _wasn’t_ that _dangerous,_ snapped, “I know Hogwarts better than you!”

Edie’s nostrils flared. “Tha’ is not the point. Now, come along,” she demanded, pulling at Lottie to follow her. After a couple of steps, however, Edie paused to nod at the twins, who watched them. “Fred, George, thank yeh.”

“Yes, we’re sorry again, Edie,” George said, shooting Lottie an apologetic wince. “Have a nice day.”

“Yeh too, boys,” Edie returned before she began to march and Ren toward whatever destination she had in mind. From the direction they were headed, Lottie suspected Severus’s quarters.

-o-O-o-

Idly, Lottie made her Quidditch dolls jump on their little bed. It was half-hearted pretend, but she imagined they were having a super fun time sharing a bed. Like the fun Lottie had back home when she, Eileen, and Susan decided to share Susan’s bed when they visited the Bones with Darla. As she played, the blanket slipped down on the bed, revealing the battered biscuit tin she’d taken from Severus’s shelf ages ago.

Lottie ought to have returned it weeks earlier, but she just hadn’t. Inside it wasn’t like home, but it was close. Outside was _exactly_ like home, though. Lottie liked that a lot. When she was really feeling sad sometimes she would take it out from her dolls’ bed and stare at it and make all the world around it go fuzzy. Then, she could almost trick herself into believing she was home and Sev would be after her to know what she’d done with the tin any moment.

It was not perfect, but it was close and Lottie had quickly realized, while she was here, that was the best she was ever going to have.

As she stared at the tin with squinted eyes, she heard Ren cry from the lounge room, “Sev’rus! Hi!” 

Lottie fell onto her bum from the crouch she’d been in as she played with her dolls. Closing her eyes, she listened to her brother say to Severus, “Lookit! I drew a glumbumble.”

“You did a very good job on the wings,” he said in a warm tone. “What inspired you today?” 

“We were copyin’ a potions recipe tha’ said ter use their legs. I wanted ter know more about ‘em an’ we went ter the library ter get a book with ‘em in it,” her brother babbled back to Severus and Lottie felt her stomach begin to twist. He was going to ask about her soon. Then Edie would tell him about her misbehavior and Lottie would find out if Severus and Edie gave punishments worse than swats.

“You will have to show me your writing too,” replied Severus with a short chortle. “I can tell you quite a lot about the potion I imagine. They are only used in a handful.”

“Sure!” agreed Ren.

There was silence then and she held her breath in anticipation.

“Where’s Lottie?” inquired Severus

Edie’s words were clipped as she answered, “Her room.”

“And she has not come out?” asked Severus, voice rising in volume. “Is she well?”

“She’s perfectly fine,” replied Edie. “She’s just been naughty.”

“Naughty?” echoed Severus, sounding a little taken aback. Lottie bit her lip.

“On our way ter see Professor McGonagall she just ran off!” said Edie while, quieter, Ren told her and Severus:

“I’m gonna go ter my room ter play.”

“It took me twenty minutes ter find her,” Edie told Severus.

“That is not good,” said Severus and Lottie winced. She could _hear_ Severus’s scowl.

“No,” agreed Edie with a small huff at the end. “I told her yeh would be havin’ a chat with her when yeh finished classes fer the day.”

“Of course,” replied Severus. “However…” murmured Severus, hesitation clear in his tone. Lottie sat a little straighter, a bit of hope welling in her. That was good, she thought. Hesitation with Sev usually meant he didn’t fully agree with Edie on something.

“Wha’?” demanded the witch.

“What exactly are you looking for me to tell her?” asked Severus in a murmur Lottie had to hone her ears to hear. “She knows not to go anywhere without an adult, yet she did,” he said. “There are no points I can take from her or detentions I can assign.”

“Have her clean somethin’ by hand,” insisted Edie, which had Lottie wrinkle her nose. Though, she felt some relief too. She had yet to suggest Lottie be hit with a ruler, or, perhaps something worse, like a broom handle. “Or think o’ somethin’ else,” continued the witch, and Lottie’s relief vanished. “She needs ter understand wha’ she did was very bad.”

“I will do what I can,” agreed Severus. Lottie had to not only strain her ears but hold her breath to hear Severus whisper to Edie, “Lottie may not listen well you must understand. Her time with us is now finite.”

She blinked as Edie snapped, “She’s eight, children tha’ age don’t think like tha’.” Lottie scowled, feeling insulted by the witch’s words. “Don’t give her the impression she _can_ not listen ter yeh an’ she will think she has ter.”

“Fine,” bit back Severus. “I hope you are correct.”

Lottie heard Severus’s boots on the stone floor of his corridor come in the direction of her room. She stood up and spun around to face the opening just in time to see Severus pull it back. He was scowling down his nose at her. She tensed.

“Lottie,” he said. “Explain yourself.”

She knew she shouldn’t, but she yelled, “I don’t have to listen to you or Edie! You’re not my parents!”

Severus’s nostrils flared and the white of his eyes grew. Marching over to Lottie he grabbed her by her arm. “Sit—” he said, trying to drag her to her bed. 

Lottie, however, began to struggle. Throwing herself toward the floor, she flailed out, knocking the blanket entirely from her doll’s bed. However, she didn’t notice. To Lottie, it didn’t matter. 

The same could not be said for Severus.

“What are you doing with this?” he demanded, letting Lottie go so abruptly she fell in a heap on the floor. She had not been expecting it at all and hit her chin on the ground, causing it to smart and the tang of blood to sprout from her lip where her teeth pierced it.

Lottie watched as Severus picked up the tin, holding it near to his heart before he shrank it and hid it away in a pocket on his breast. When he finished, he turned a look at Lottie that made her stomach quiver. “Explain yourself,” he hissed.

She opened her mouth, but nothing came out. Severus snarled and reached for her, yanking her back onto her feet in one painful motion. She yelped, but still found no words to answer Severus.

“Explain yourself!” he roared at Lottie, shaking her hard enough to make her teeth chatter and for her to cut her lip again. Lottie wanted to tell Severus to stop, that he was hurting her, but she didn’t think it would matter to him at this moment.

She wasn’t his daughter.

Enraged herself at that thought, at remembering no matter how alike Severus was to Sev, how he was not her dad, how _nothing_ was home, but just a mocking echo, she screamed, “What’s it matter! It’s all wrong just like everything else!”

Severus bared his teeth and Lottie was still too furious to be scared. She showed off her own bloody teeth at the wizard. This seemed to double Severus’s anger as he dragged her kicking to her bed and threw her down on it. “It matters because it is _MINE_!” he roared at her. “I have already given you more of mine than anyone else and yet took more! Took something I did not and would never have given you!”

“Wha’ is goin’ on in here?” demanded Edie, stepping into Lottie’s room. She was white, clearly scared, but being so heartbreakingly brave. She had her wand in one hand and the curtain of Lottie’s room in the other. She stared across the room at them. Lottie laid haphazard on the bed with blood trails on her chin, and at Severus, hunched over her like a werewolf over their victim, breathing hard and hands balled in fists.

Lottie was going to scream at her too because this was all her fault. Edie shouldn’t have gotten so cross about her vanishing for a bit. However, Edie gasped instead when Lottie turned her face fully toward her. Faster than Lottie would have thought possible for the witch, and certainly more quickly than Severus expected, Edie had Severus disarmed of his wand and in a heap on the floor. She had hit him with a jelly-leg jinx!

“Lottie c’mere,” urged Edie.

She didn’t, instead wiped off her chin and slid off her bed to put her hands on her hips and demand, “What’d you do that for?”

“He hurt yeh!” cried Edie. “Tha’s not okay, now, c’mere!” Her voice begging and shaking out right now, she said, “The jinx only works fer so long an’ we need ter leave.”

“Severus didn’t,” Lottie assured Edie. “We were just yellin’.”

Edie seemed far from convinced, and, in spite of how terrified she must be of Severus, began to hurry toward Lottie. Before the witch could grab her, Lottie got on the floor with Severus and wedged herself under one of his arms. Severus tensed before his fingers curled around her middle. As for Edie, she froze mid-step, expression turning more fraught.

Meeting Edie’s stormy gray gaze, she said again, “He didn’t do anything but yell and put me on my bed.” She pushed out her lower lip briefly, hoping that Edie would be able to see bite marks on her lip. “I hurt myself,” she explained.

Severus squeezed Lottie for a brief moment before he murmured, “I would _never_ hit her.” Lottie turned her head to look at Severus’s profile. He was staring at Edie with large, almost shining eyes. His Adam's apple bobbed up and down before he said, “Or any child.”

Edie’s expression shifted to something a little less afraid and more uncertain. “How can I…? The way yeh treated yer students…”

Severus’s lips curled into an aggrieved frown. “I understand,” he said, not even trying to defend himself or prove he was better than he’d been. “I know I am untrustworthy.”

Lottie couldn’t believe what she was hearing. Severus was too trustworthy! He always did what he said he would. Edie didn’t know what she was talking about. “You’re wrong,” she said. “You are too trustworthy,” she assured Severus. Glowering at Edie, she scolded her, “Don’t say mean stuff like that!”

“Lottie,” she whispered, clearly hurt.

Severus sighed. Letting her go, Severus pushed himself up on shaky, but now capable legs. Edie stepped back. Severus didn’t seem offended or upset by her actions and instead turned to face Lottie fully. Staring down at Lottie with a neutral expression that frustrated Lottie, he said, “You are not to leave your room for the rest of the day except for the toilet.” Lottie furrowed her brows, confused. Severus didn’t explain, however, he simply continued on and said, “There will be no sweets or pudding for the next few days and if you misbehave for Edie or me again, you should expect to scrub the bathroom clean from top to bottom the Muggle way.”

“What?” she sputtered. “I don’t—”

Severus cut her off. “Edie will return to give you your dinner and tuck you in to sleep later.” He hesitated a moment, but Severus reached out and gently took her chin. Once it was in hand, Lottie stilled and could only stare up at Severus as he brushed the rough pad of his thumb over her sore lip. “I am sorry for being rough with you,” he said. “As cross as I became, I should have given more care to making sure you did not injure yourself when you started to flail about.”

She looked away, feeling ashamed. Lottie knew if she hadn’t been a baby, Severus and Edie would not now be at odds. “I know better,” she mumbled. “Only babies like Calliope should be throwing strops.”

Severus sighed. “If only that were true,” he murmured. He then turned toward Edie and said, “I wish for you to be comfortable, but I would really rather have my wand than not.”

Edie looked to the hand she held Severus’s wand in. She cringed, but held it out all the same. Severus was very measured in how he moved toward the witch and took the wand from her open palm with great care. “Thank you,” he said. Lottie could only see his back now, but Edie’s assessing gaze told her a lot when Severus next murmured, “Would you prefer I leave first or for you to?”

“Yeh,” she answered in hardly more than a mutter.

Severus’s hair swayed from what undoubtedly was him nodding. He then walked past Edie, making sure not to touch her. “I will spend the evening in my office, if you have a need for me, a floo call will suffice.”

Tension bled out of Edie while Lottie’s stomach dropped. She’d ruined everything for them, hadn’t she? Edie wasn’t going to want to stay at Hogwarts now. Severus, even if he still wanted her to now that she was afraid, wouldn’t dare to ask. Not even under a weak truth serum.

Her dismay was briefly interrupted by Edie telling her, “I’ll call an elf after I talk ter Ren about wha’ he wants. D’yeh have preferences ternight?”

She shook her head.

Edie exhaled and left. The drape fell back down and created a wall between the lounge and Lottie’s room. Soon, it would be a lot more separating her from Severus, Edie, and Ren. She needed to fix this before she left. Lottie couldn't leave knowing she left Severus and Edie on bad terms and her brother without a family.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The biscuit tin Lottie took finally made its reappearance! Thoughts this chapter?
> 
> Thank you for reading and please let me know how you enjoyed it with a comment and/or kudo!


	18. Last Ditch Effort

It took time, but it did finally dawn on him all that yelling a couple of nights ago was a very bad thing when he came out of his room for breakfast to find Severus missing yet again. At the table, his mother was holding a cup of tea long gone cold, and Lottie was mucking around in her bowl of porridge instead of eating it. Sliding into the chair he’d begun to think of as his, Ren picked a piece of bread from the small plate in the middle of the table and began to slowly eat it.

Eyes darting from his mum to Lottie, he realized his mum had gone and gotten lost in her head like she often did when they lived in Knockturn Alley. Which was why Lottie hadn’t been chastised into eating instead of playing with her breakfast.

When Mum disappeared into her own mind, it usually meant one of the men she danced for had been particularly awful. Or that she hadn’t danced much at all lately and she was trying to decide what they could do without for the coming month. Often, it meant Mum didn’t buy much food for herself, just enough to make sure Ren didn’t go to sleep hungry. Sometimes, it was their water bill that didn’t get paid and they had to hope Mum’s temperamental wand would cooperate and give them enough water to cook, clean, and drink every day. 

He knew the reason for his mum’s vanishing couldn’t be the second reason. Hogwarts cost nothing as far as Ren could tell. The food came without so much as a coin being passed between anyone. The water always worked and no matter how hard he searched Severus's quarters, he’d not once found a bill with a demand for money for the use of it, or for anything else for that matter.

He squinted at his mother and then at Lottie. Had Severus hurt one of them? A familiar rolling began in his stomach. Ren had come to believe Severus wasn’t like that. He’d even begun to think maybe he was a _good_ man. Something that was rare and highly sought after on Knockturn Alley.

It appeared Ren had put too much faith in the wizard. 

“Ren,” Mum said, blinking at him as if he’d popped right into existence and not slid into his chair some minutes ago. “Would yeh like yer tea?” she asked.

He nodded his head and watched the witch as she made his drink. Her movements were fluid and she wasn’t tugging at her sleeves or collar like she was trying to hide a bruising or wound. Maybe it wasn’t Mum who had been hurt then. He looked over at his sister. She was glaring at Edie as she put his tea in front of him and began to prepare his porridge with a handful of the berries and a sprinkling of sugar from the small bowls near the toast plate.

When his mum placed his breakfast in front of him, she looked at Lottie and said, “Yeh eat tha’ or yeh’ll have nothin’ till lunch.”

Lottie shoved her bowl away from her. “I don’t want stupid porridge anyway!” she snapped. “I wanted to go with Severus an’ have breakfast in the hall.”

“He’s probably havin’ porridge too,” replied mum, expression weary.

Lottie got out of her seat and stopped toward her room. “They have lots of things!” she raged. “Not just bloody porridge!”

“Charlotte!” cried Mum, eyes blowing wide.

Lottie stuck out her tongue at Mum. “Nyah!” she said. “I’m already going to my room so you can’t do anything to me!”

His mum put her face in her hands and Ren felt sad for her and annoyed with Lottie. Why was his sister cross with Mum if it was Severus who’d proved he wasn’t a good man? Ren ate a bite of porridge and took a sip of his drink before he asked, “Why’s Lottie so cross with yeh, Mum?”

She sighed at his question before a fake smile stretched across her face. “She just doesn’t see tha’ I’m tryin’ ter protect her is all.”

Ren understood that feeling terribly well. He’d experienced it a lot in Knockturn Alley. Such as when Mum wouldn’t let him run all over the building their flat was in with the neighbor children. She said it was unsafe even though the other kids and some of their mums said it was perfectly fine as long as they didn’t _leave_ the building.

They’d been proven wrong and Mum right about a year ago when one the smallest of the gang who roamed the halls, Taren Jenkins, went missing without so much as a hint as to where he’d gone or what had happened to him. Some thought he’d been stolen for some dark spell or potion. Others wagered he’d been taken and sold to some childless Pureblood couple. His mum was a believer in the latter. Taren had been a very clever three-year-old who’d showed off plenty of incidents of accidental magic to family, mates, and strangers alike. He’d no doubt would have been exactly what some Pureblood family wanted in an heir.

After that, children hadn’t roamed quite so freely around their tenement building and Ren didn’t think his mum was overprotective anymore. It was more than obvious she’d been only trying to save him from Taren’s unknown fate.

Ren nodded his head at his mother’s explanation and went about finishing his breakfast. When he was done, he looked at her and asked, “Can I go see Lottie?”

His mum frowned. “I don’t know…” she murmured. “She is supposed ter be in the midst o’ a punishment.”

Ren made his expression look dejected and she relented. “Fine,” she said. “But I better not hear ter much gigglin’ in there.”

“Thanks, Mum!” he exclaimed, hopping from his spot and running off to Lottie’s bedroom. Pulling back the curtain, he stepped in with a flourish. Closing it quickly, he turned his attention to his sister who’d draped herself over the ledge of her enchanted window. “Wha’s happened?” he asked.

He looked behind himself and at the curtain. He couldn’t see his mother’s form blocking the light from the lounge anywhere in the slight gap between the drape’s hem and the stone floor. That was good. It meant she wasn’t trying to listen in and there would be no need for whispering. Lottie turned away from the window and Ren’s throat twisted up.

There were tears on her face.

Lottie didn’t cry during the day. Only at night when she missed _her_ Mum and Severus. Voice shaking slightly, she whispered, “I ruined everything, Ren.”

Ren was baffled and just a little bit frightened. “Wha’? How?” he asked nervously beginning to pick at a loose thread on his sleeve.

Tears continued to roll down Lottie’s face. “I was trying to find a way to make sure after I go home, you and Edie would stay here with Severus and all be happy,” she explained. “Instead, I made your mum upset and Severus so furious he’s made Edie think he hurt me.”

“…But he didn’t?” whispered Ren after a moment, having moved on to twisting the loose thread of his sleeve around a finger to the point it hurt.

She shook her head. “Not on purpose,” she said, sniffling. Lottie wiped her face off with the front of her jumper and told Ren, “He just dropped me and then I bit my lip.”

Ren let go of the thread. “Oh,” he replied, stomach not rolling half as bad as it had been. So Severus wasn’t like those bad men his Mum danced for. She was just _mistaken_ Severus was.

Lottie went and threw herself down on her bed and curled up on her side. Looking at Ren with despairing eyes, she complained, “Now Edie is scared of Severus and there’s no way Severus will ask her to stay here with him because he doesn’t think she’ll say yes.” She whimpered. “Not even the truth serum the twins promised me is going to help.”

Ren’s stomach knotted up anew. “We’re not goin’ ter stay here?” he asked, unable to hide the shakiness of his tone. “How am I goin’ ter become a good Hogwarts student?”

Lottie gave a lazy shrug and turned onto her back to stare at the ceiling. “Severus always keeps promises he makes,” she said. “You’ll be okay, he’ll probably make sure you an’ Edie move to a nice place close by, in Hogsmeade probably. He’ll send lessons and books to you there.”

Ren shook his head. He didn’t want that. Hogsmeade was a pretty place, but it wasn’t _Hogwarts_. Mum would have to work there he bet and that was the last thing Ren wanted for her. “I don’t want ter live someplace else an’ I don’t want Mum ter go back ter dancin’!” he cried.

More tears slid down from the corners of Lottie’s eyes. “I’m sorry,” she whispered. “It’s all my fault.”

Ren went and crawled onto his sister’s bed. Grabbing her arm, he dug his fingers into her flesh with far more force than necessary. “We can fix this,” he declared. “We have ter.”

Her expression was one of pain and Lottie weakly tried to pull away from him. Ren let up on his grip, though, he continued to hang on. “I don’t know Ren…” she mumbled. “Everything I’ve done hasn’t helped so far.”

He couldn’t just let this be over. He couldn’t go back to living with just Mum in a damp flat. Ren didn’t want to go back to feeling useless as he watched her leave every day to dance for bad men who hurt her. “ _I’ll_ talk ter ‘em,” he proclaimed. “Tell ‘em I want ter stay.” Maybe that would work. He knew mum wanted him to be happy. If he said staying would make him happy… Mum would be less likely to turn down an invitation from Severus. Especially if he asked Severus to stay first.

Lottie’s brows knit together and she asked between sniffles, “Will that work? I know Edie loves you lots, but she’s really scared of Severus now.”

Ren considered her words. Lottie had a point. Sometimes Mum didn’t give him what he wanted, even if it did make him happy. Often she said it was for his own good. Who was to say she wouldn’t see denying them the chance to stay at Hogwarts as something that must be done for Ren’s “own good”? 

“Maybe I can explain it all ter Mum,” mused Ren. He tightened his grip on Lottie again, though, not to the point it hurt her this time. Staring into her dark blue gaze he demanded, “Tell me exactly why Sev’rus got so cross. Maybe I can show her it’s ‘cause yeh were really naughty an’ not ‘cause Sev’rus is bad.”

Lottie’s eyes narrowed into a glare and her lips into a frown. “I wasn’t that naughty!” she denied. “My Sev let me look in the tin all of the time.”

Ren ignored her denial. Obviously, his sister had been. Why else would they be in this situation? “Tin?” he asked instead, focusing on what little she was admitting to.

Lottie sighed in what Rin thought was defeat. “Yes, a biscuit tin,” she replied, words grumbling. “It’s full of stuff from when Severus was younger. Pictures, letters, drawings, a couple of toys, and a rock.”

Ren tilted his head to the side. That sounded like something somebody wouldn’t want a kid digging through. Nan Annette had a little jewelry box in her room with a lock and any kid who so much as breathed too close to it got a scolding. As Ren had learned from asking one day, it was all she had of her dead Mum, and inside was other special things, like a couple of pictures of her as a younger woman and the booties of her only son who died as a little baby. 

“Is it stuff yeh shouldn’t have gone through?” he asked his sister.

Lottie made a face and looked away. “I guess,” she muttered, reluctant.

Ren couldn’t help himself, he smirked. “So yeh _were_ naughty.”

“Fine!” snapped Lottie, finally putting in an effort to get away from Ren. “I was naughty,” she admitted, arms crossed and looking in the exact opposite direction of him.

He nodded, turning somber. “I’ll tell Mum,” he assured his sister. “She’ll believe me.”

Lottie didn’t appear convinced. Even so, she reached over and tentatively patted his hand. “Good luck, Ren.”

“We’ll fix this,” he promised, smiling. “Don’t worry.” Ren was sure they could. They had to. It was the only way he and mum could stay here, stay safe, and maybe be happy forever after like in stories.

Lottie’s tense features gentled into something soft and a little pink. “I love you,” she mumbled.

Ren couldn’t help but beam. “Love yeh too,” he said before leaning in and hugging her. Lottie hugged him back and for a moment, he just focused on the way it made him feel warm. How it made everything _real_.

Lottie would be going home soon. Ren didn’t understand everything about how his sister arrived at Hogwarts, but he did know he wasn’t going to see her again probably. She was going to go away like his dad did. Ren needed to remember these special moments so he could be certain later when doubt took him that Lottie really _had_ loved him as he did her.

When he let Lottie go, he couldn’t help himself. Ren wanted to continue this closeness. He reached up and brushed the hairs stuck to her face away. Lottie smiled a little as he did, eyes wet anew. Ren hesitated, but in the end, cupped the curves of her jaw in his hands the way his mum did when he was upset. Lottie stared at him with wide, surprised eyes.

“We’re goin’ ter be happy,” he promised her.

She nodded. “Okay,” she whispered.

Ren let his sister go and got off the bed and left. When he stepped back into the lounge, he saw his mother sitting on the edge of one of the sofa’s cushions. Her wand was laid out across her knees and she was twisting her fingers in her hair. “Mum?” he called out, uncertain. She usually didn’t let him see her look so worried.

“Yes, Ren?” she asked, fingers falling out of her hair and to rest atop her wand.

“Wha’ happened the other day?” he asked. He believed Lottie but thought it would probably be easier to get Mum to believe her too if he knew _what_ she saw made her think Severus had hurt his sister.

His mother’s whole body flinched at his question. “Nothin’ I shouldn’t o’ expected,” she answered finally.

He frowned. “Wha’s tha’ mean?”

Mum shook her head and smiled at Ren. “Nothin’, my swee’,” she replied. Picking up her wand in one hand, she patted her lap with the other. “C’mere. We can read a story tergether.”

“No,” he said, crossing his arms.

Her smile fell. “Ren.”

Staring at his dismayed mum, Ren sucked in a breath. “Lottie says she was naughty an’ went through Sev’rus’s private tin,” he told her.

Mum’s brows knit together in the exact same way as Lottie’s had earlier “Tin?” she repeated only to sigh. “Nevermind,” she said. “Tha’s no reason fer wha’ happened ter have occurred.”

Ren stuck out his chin. “Lottie hurt herself.”

“I’m sure,” said Mum, lips thinning.

“Yeh don’t believe her?” demanded Ren, raising his voice.

His mum sighed and looked away from him. “Lottie adores her dad.”

Ren frowned. “Sev’rus isn’t her dad.”

“Near enough,” she replied.

He moved forward and grabbed at the front of the dress his mum was wearing. “Mum, I want ter stay at Hogwarts,” he pleaded.

She ran a hand over the top of his head, expression wistful. “I wish we could.”

“Why not?” he asked, heart pounding. “Don’t you want me to be happy?” he demanded, knowing he was being a bad son, but unable to help himself.

“Ren, c’mere,” whispered his mum as she wrapped her arms around him, trapping him against her.

“Why not, Mum?” he asked again after he struggled to free his face from his mother’s chest.

She leaned down and kissed his forehead. “I love yeh.”

“I love yeh too,” he said, feeling uneasy.

She kept one arm wound around his torso while the other moved up and her hand came to grip his chin. His eyes were a dark, foreboding gray as she declared, “I won’t let _anyone_ hurt yeh.”

“I know,” he whispered.

His mum’s brows drooped and the foreboding gray turned a shade lighter. Similar in shade to a rain cloud. “We can’t stay ‘cause I won’t risk yeh bein’ hurt,” she said.

He felt indignant on Severus’s behalf. The wizard had shown he had some vices over their time together, but he’d _always_ been careful with Ren. “Sev’rus wouldn’t hurt me,” he told her.

She exhaled and leaned to rest her scarred cheek on top of his head. For a moment, she was silent. Then, she murmured. “He’s hurt Lottie.”

“He didn’t!” decried Ren, bucking hard against his mother until she had to let him go. 

His mother didn’t let Ren get away, however. Instead, she kneeled down to his height and grabbed both of his arms with devil’s snare-like strength. Her gaze was steely as she said, “Ren, yeh listen ter me, I understand men much better than yeh. He hurt her.”

Ren wasn’t going to convince her. Not now. He’d figure out how to soon, though. He had to. Instead, he tried to crack his mother in another way. Making sure his lip quivered with the upset he was feeling, Ren demanded, “How am I goin’ ter be a student if I don’t stay an’ learn?”

Her hold loosened slightly and she let go of one of his arms. With her now free hand, she stroked his shaking lip with the rough pad of her thumb. “Sev’rus already signed papers,” she said, “contracts. Yeh will have a place here whether we stay o’ not.”

He felt unwanted tears start behind his eyes. “I want to,” he pleaded. “I like it here. I like Sev’rus.”

Mum wiped the tears dripping out of his eyes away. “This is fer the best.”

“It’s not!” he spat, jerking away. “Mum, listen ter me!” he yelled. “He didn’t hurt her, okay? Lottie wouldn’t lie.”

Her face turned resolute. “Ren, I’ve decided. This is final.”

Ren didn’t want to tell, because Lottie was already in enough trouble, but he wasn’t seeing a way around it. This could be what decided whether they stay at Hogwarts or not. “I could prove it,” he told his mum.

She frowned. “Wha’?”

He nodded. “Lottie was gettin’ the twins ter brew a truth serum teh give yeh an’ Sev’rus—”

“A _truth serum_?” she cut in, eyes large and mouth parted with surprise.

He shrugged and looked away. “She thought with it she could get yeh both ter admit ter wanting us ter stay.”

His mother’s expression was rueful. “That sneaky lil—”

Ren didn’t let her finish. Instead, he cut in and told his mum, “We could give it ter Lottie. Ask her if he hurt her. She’d have ter say the truth.” Ren put his hands on his mum’s shoulders, twisting his fingers in the loose fabric of her dress. “Yeh’d see, Mum. Sev’rus didn’t hurt her.”

She scrunched her nose. “Tha’s a terrible idea.”

“Mum, please,” he begged. Ren snagged his lower lip between his teeth a moment. “If… If it turns out she’s covering fer ‘im, I won’t say nothin’. I’ll let us leave Hogwarts, no fuss,” he promised.

“I don’t know, Ren,” said his mum, looking away. “The twins are eleven. How much can we trust this potion ter work correctly?”

“Lottie trusted ‘em ter make it ter use on yeh an’ Sev’rus,” he reminded her.

She sighed. “Lottie also knows more about potions than us,” said Mum. She rubbed her cheek with the heel of her hand. “She probably would know if it’s been brewed wrong.”

He wasn’t supposed to know. Mum was always so _careful_. Maybe it worked with Lottie. She didn’t know his mum nearly as well as he did. However, Ren wasn’t half as easily fooled even if he pretended to be. “Yeh fancy Sev’rus,” he said. “I know yeh do.”

His mother’s expression turned aghast. “Ren!”

“It’s okay. I don’t mind,” he reassured his mum. “Yer sad now ‘cause yeh think he’s like the men yeh dance fer. This serum, it would show yeh he isn’t,” explained Ren. Meeting his mum’s gaze directly, he promised, “We could all be happy, Mum, if yeh’d just do this.”

“Swee’,” she whispered.

Ren didn’t let her sad murmur stop him and insisted, “ _Happy_ , Mum. Maybe forever after like in a story.”

There was a long quiet moment where his mother’s expression was one of deliberation. Finally, she sighed and Ren fought back a triumphant grin. He’d done it. They were going to stay at Hogwarts. “Let’s go talk ter the twins. I’m not promisin’ anything, but if they can _really_ prove they know wha’ they’re doin’ and that the serum works…” she said. “Maybe we’ll give yer plan a try.”

“Mum!” exclaimed Ren, tackling her with a hug that had her almost falling backward until she caught herself. “Yeh’ll see. This is goin’ ter work an’ we’re all goin’ ter be happier than before,” he swore.

She patted his back. “I’ll call a house-elf to stay with Lottie. Go get dressed.”

Ren let go of his mother and ran for his room, already tearing out of his pajama shirt. Lottie was going to be so relieved when she learned he’d fixed it like he said he would.

-o-O-o-

Finding the twins took a little bit of time and, eventually, ended with them waiting outside of the Care of Magical Creatures classroom. An older Gryffindor had told them it was likely where the two would be. It seemed first-year Gryffindors and Hufflepuffs took this class at this time and it wouldn’t be finished for another twenty minutes. As they waited, his mother made small talk with a portrait. While Ren sat on the corridor floor and played with a couple of the toy soldiers he kept in the pockets of his robes.

Finally, their waiting came to an end when the sound of students putting away their supplies and chatting with one another echoed out into the corridor from the classroom. Ren put his soldiers back in his pocket and went to stand with his mum.

She took his hand as students started to filter out of the room and he smiled up at her, trying to reassure her that this was going to work. A lot of the students coming out of the class noticed them and some started to lean into each other’s hair and whisper. Ren tried to give them little to talk about by smiling at all of the older kids as if he was simply passing through the halls with Mum and not waiting outside of the classroom for a specific reason. Finally, after what had to be half the class had spilled out into the hall and started off for their next classes or activities, the twins came out.

Ren stepped forward, calling out, “‘Lo!”

Fred and George looked at him and then at Mum and then at each other. Their expressions were friendly as they came closer, but Ren could see they were also suspicious from the way their eyes kept searching the corridor for Lottie (or maybe Severus). “Hi, Ren,” said one, Fred, he thought. Then he smiled up at Edie. “It’s nice to see you too, Ren’s mum.”

“Edie,” she corrected.

The boy blinked. “Erh, Edie,” he said, seemingly uncomfortable with calling her by her first name. He’d probably be happier if he knew their surname so he could call her by that. Ren knew his mum wasn’t going to share it. She always got nervous if she did people would know her family and start asking questions she didn’t want to answer.

“Where’s Lottie?” asked the other twin. “I don’t see her.”

“In trouble,” replied Ren.

George’s mouth fell open. “Really?” he asked while Fred’s face grew nervous.

Ren nodded. “Lottie told me yeh were goin’ ter make a truth serum,” he said.

“She did!” exclaimed Fred, suddenly a shade paler and his eyes darting to Edie.

George chuckled at his proclamation, though it sounded forced. “She’s a riot, that Lottie,” he said as if his sister had been having a laugh at them.

He glared at George. Ren was not going to let him worm out of this. Crossing his arms, he told them, “I know she wasn’t lying.” He looked up at Mum whose expression was strained, but not cross yet. “She said it was fer Mum an' Sev’rus.”

“I’m not upset,” broke in his mum when the boys continued to stare at them, mute and mulish. She smiled with her teeth at Fred and George. “I know yeh like Lottie an’ wanted ter help her.”

“Oh,” said Fred, letting out of a breath of air.

George looked to his feet and mumbled, “We’re sorry.”

His mum’s smile wavered. “No yeh aren’t,” she rebuked. “Yeh two are eleven an’ have ter know slippin’ someone somethin’ is _not_ okay.”

“It wouldn’t have hurt either of you,” argued George, looking up from his feet with a pout on his face.

Ren winced and was not surprised when his mum’s hand shot out and grabbed his ear. The boy yelped as she gave it a tug. “It is _wrong_ ,” she insisted, now cross with the two. “It doesn’t matter if it won’t ‘hurt’ them. Usin’ a love potion on someone doesn’t hurt ‘em, but wha’ happens the under the influence o’ it _can_.”

George stared up at Edie with wide, shocked eyes. Fred placed a shaky hand on Ren’s mother’s arm. She looked at him with a narrowed gaze and raised an eyebrow. “We won’t slip anyone anything or help anyone slip anything ever again,” he promised. “We _are_ sorry, Edie.”

She let go of George and nodded. “Good,” she said. Ren watched the hard lines of his mum’s face soften before she affectionately patted George’s head. “I know yer nice boys,” she assured them. “I want tha’ ter stay true.”

Fred and George continued to stare at Edie with a mixture of doubt and relief. Ren, who felt the tricky part had been handled, said to the twins, “Can I have the serum yeh made? I want ter ask Lottie ter take it.”

“Uh, sure?” agreed Fred, frowning. “But…”

“Why?” George finished, tilting his head and looking between the two. “I don’t get the impression you much approve of it, Edie.”

Ren raised his face to stare at his mum. She looked uncomfortable and one of her hands rested over her scar. She did that often when she was trying to hide from things. People, looks, questions. He decided he’d answer for them. “Mum thinks Sev’rus hurt Lottie,” he replied, causing his mother to stiffen and the twins to blanche. He balled his hands at his sides, angry there was not an ounce of disbelief to be seen on any of their faces. “He _didn’t_ ,” he hissed. He returned his stare to his mother and explained with no small amount of venom to his words, “But she won’t believe us.”

She glowered back at him. “Ren did not witness wha’ I did,” she snapped. Then, Mum exhaled and covered her entire face for a few seconds. When she pulled her hands away, her expression was sad. “I don’t want ter speak ill o’ yer professor, boys, but I do think ‘im capable o’ hurtin’ a lil’girl.”

The twins nodded and exchanged a meaningful look. “He’s a strict professor,” said Fred.

George wrinkled his nose. “Rather mean, actually,” he muttered much to Ren’s dismay. 

Fred scratched his chin. “I’ve heard some people say he was involved with You-Know-Who.”

Edie stilled and Ren prepared to argue because it didn’t seem right at all to Ren to decide someone worked for Voldemort because they were _strict_. George, however, jumped in before he could and countered, “But they say that about Professor Sinistra too and neither of us _see_ it.”

“She was a Slytherin, though, like Professor Snape,” mused Fred only to shrug his shoulders. To Ren and his mum, he commented, “We think maybe people just say they were a part of that stuff because of their house.”

“Tha’s awful,” murmured Ren.

“My Mum said once Slytherin was You-Know-Who’s favorite picking grounds,” added George. 

Fred gave a small laugh. “Mad, isn’t it?” he said to them. “Just because He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Name liked recruiting from there, now some people think _everyone_ from there is a Death-Eater even when it doesn’t make sense!”

Ren huffed. He didn’t want to talk about stupid people. He wanted to talk about _Severus_. Everyone was thinking the worst of him when he was really probably one of the rare good men. “Well, I don’t care if yeh think he’s strict o’ could hurt Lottie!” declared Ren, stamping his foot. Glaring at all of them, he spat, “Sev’rus didn’t do it an’ we’re goin’ ter prove it with the serum.”

Fred and George winced. Mum sighed and put a hand on his head. Ren sort of wanted to toss it away. She was worse than the twins in a way. She didn’t just think Severus capable of possibly hurting Lottie, she believed he _had_.

In the end, he didn’t. As cross as he was, he knew it made Mum very sad when he refused her affection and she was really sad enough as it was. “Can yeh boys tell me how yeh know this serum works?” she asked. “While I’m sure yeh are good at potions, yer also eleven.”

“Oh, don’t worry,” said Fred. “We tested it on some mates in a game of Truth or Dare.”

“With their permission, of course!” interjected George, looking a little wild-eyed which had Ren holding back a smirk. Yeah, if Mum had thought they’d slipped it to their mates she’d probably actually give them a rap on their hands with her wand.

“Of course it was with permission,” Fred agreed with a roll of his eyes. “We just didn’t tell which of them was drinking the potion so it was fair.” He laughed then, and told them, “We did _not_ need to know Lee Jordan ate his scabs as a little kid, but we do now.”

Ren cocked his head. That was a strange thing to have learned about a mate. “Wha’ kind o’ questions were yeh askin’ each other?” he asked, curious to hear a little more about their game of Truth or Dare.

“Nevermind tha’,” cut in Mum. “Tell me, how strong is this?” she demanded. Stern, she said, “Veritaserum is a controlled potion.”

“We’ve never been pissed,” replied George, looking at Fred with mirthful eyes.

“Being eleven and all,” his brother joined in with a snicker.

“Buuut that’s how the textbook we made it from described the level of inhibition it takes away,” continued George, grinning broadly. “Your tongue is as loose as a lush’s and if Angela is any indicator, you also become a very obvious liar.”

Ren smiled at this. Not only did it make someone more likely to tell the truth, but it also made it easy to tell if they were lying? Well, then it would be even better at helping them gauge if Lottie was being honest than he’d initially thought. “It should work real well on Lottie!” he exclaimed, smiling up at his mother.

“You bet!” agreed Fred, grinning at the two of them.

“We’ll take it then,” said Edie.

“Sure,” agreed George. “We can have it delivered tomorrow,” he told them. He stuck out a hand for Ren’s mum. After a brief hesitation, she took the boy’s hand and gave it a shake. “It’s been good doing business with you,” he said.

Mum’s expression turned bemused and the twins laughed. “Sorry,” said Fred.

“Yeah,” chimed in George. “We know this isn’t that serious,” he said. “We just plan to open our own joke shop someday,” he explained.

Fred nodded vigorously. “Exactly!” he agreed. “So, Fred just wants to practice stuff like handshakes.”

“It was fine,” said Mum, lips twitching.

George beamed.

“Can we ask something?” said Fred, abruptly switching the topic and appearing quite uncertain as he did so.

His mother nodded. “Yes.”

“So, if you find out Professor Snape did hurt her, what happens?” he asked.

Mum sighed and looked away from the twins. “We’ll leave Hogwarts the same day Lottie does.”

“No,” said George with a gasp, eyes large. “You’re really liked here by the students.”

His mother pursed her lips, but Ren couldn’t help but say, “Really?” It was nice to hear he and his mum weren’t looked at as unwanted guests. Initially, he’d sort of gotten the impression other professors weren’t too keen on their presence in the castle. 

“Yeah,” replied Fred, smiling at him. “I think you make Professor Snape less miserable too.”

“Maybe even happy,” hypothesized George, eyes glittering.

Ren felt himself grin. Grabbing his mother’s sleeve, he tugged on her arm and said, feeling quite smug, “I told yeh Mum, we could all be happy!”

She took her arm back with a single hard jerk. Frustration clear in her tone, she snapped, “I don’t care that he’s happier if he hurt Lottie.” She knelt down and took Ren’s face in her hands. Staring into her face, Ren was made to see his mother was grief-stricken when she whispered, “I’m not stayin’ ter let yeh be hurt too.”

He tried to protest. “Mum—”

“She’s right,” broke in George before he could finish. Ren twisted away from his mother’s hands when he felt fingers squeeze his shoulder. He saw they belonged to Fred, who was eyeing him with sympathy while his brother said, “If he’s hurt her, you should go. He can’t do anything _too_ awful to us, seeing as he’s not the headmaster, but you guys aren’t students.”

“See?” prompted Mum, voice wobbly. “Listen ter yer mates.”

Ren looked from her to the twins and felt defeated. If the twins felt they should leave too, Mum and he should, shouldn’t they? Fred and George seemed to know a lot for only being a few years older. “Fine,” he relented.

Fred’s fingers squeezed him a second time. “Sorry, Ren,” he apologized, “we’d like it if you could stay too.”

George looked to Ren’s mother. “If Lottie isn’t covering for Snape, will you two stay?”

Ren bobbed his head up and down. “Yes!”

“If he asks us too,” said Mum, eyes sharp.

He scowled. “Mum!”

“I won’t impose where we aren’t wanted,” she told him, frowning.

Ren threw his hands up, nearly slapping Fred, who dodged his hand just in time. “Of course he wants us!” he exclaimed. Gesturing at the twins, he reminded her, glowering all the while, “Yeh heard them, he’s _happier_.”

His mother sighed and briefly hid her face in her hands once more. When she pulled them away, she gave Ren a tight smile. “Let’s handle one thing at a time, hm?”

He pouted. Ren was not happy. He didn’t want to _maybe_ stay. He wanted to stay. As much as he wanted to argue, Ren could see now was not the time to fight. Mum might change her mind about giving Lottie the truth serum. “Fine,” he spat, turning away. Even if he was going to drop it, he was going to make sure Mum knew he wasn’t happy.

She patted his head and stood back up. “Thank yeh, boys,” she said to the twins. “When do yeh think yeh can have this serum ter us?”

“Tomorrow?” said Fred. 

George nodded. “We can have it for you in the afternoon,” he went on. He tapped his cheek. “Where do you want us to bring it to you?”

Edie said, “Sev’rus’s quarters.” She then passed along directions to them and added, “I’m trustin’ yeh ter not misuse knowin’ where they are.”

Fred smirked. “We wouldn’t dare,” he said.

George put up a hand. “We swear.”

Ren, who knew how children worked, narrowed his eyes. “When we prove Lottie isn’t a liar and _stay_ ,” he paused and sneaked a look at his mother who pursed her lips but didn’t try to correct him. “It’s goin’ ter be our home too,” he finished.

The twins for a half-beat appeared startled by this news, then they chuckled. “Yeah,” said Fred. “It will be, won’t it?”

Feeling very proud of himself, Ren puffed out his chest. “Yes!” he joined in. “So yeh _can’t_ do anythin’ with knowin’ where the quarters are ‘cause yeh’ll wrong us too if yeh try ter wrong Sev’rus.”

“Aren’t you clever?” George teased. “Taking the fun out of even _theoretically_ plotting what to do with our new knowledge.”

Ren beamed. His mother, however, made a tutting sound. “Yes,” she murmured. “Well, tha’s all fer now,” she said. “Yeh two probably should head off fer yer next classes.”

Fred made a noise of surprise. “Oh!” he exclaimed. “Blimey, Professor McGonagall is going to be cross,” he complained.

George grabbed his twin’s wrist. “Not if we run!” he exclaimed. “Come on!” He waved at Ren. “Don’t worry too much for now, Ren,” he said.

As the two shot off down the corridor, he called after them. “Thank yeh! An’ sorry!”

“It’s okay,” Fred shouted back before they disappeared altogether into another hall.

Ren was made to look up at his mum next when she took his hand. “Let’s get back to Lottie,” she said. “We’ve been gone long enough.”

-O-

As soon as they returned to Sev’rus’s quarters, Lottie leaped at Ren. Seizing his hand, she started to pull him off to her room. She glared at Mum who watched her with a frown. “We’re goin’ to talk in my room, _not_ play,” she spat.

His mum sighed and went to the sofa. “Very well,” she replied. “When yer done, yeh can both come out an’ we’ll work on yer writin’.”

“Ew,” grumbled Lottie as she yanked back the drape that separated her room from the lounge. Once they were inside her room, she pulled the drape back in place and turned to Ren. Arms crossed, she raised a single-eyebrow and demanded, “Well?”

For a moment, Ren could only stare at his sister. She had to have learned that look from Severus. It was a bit odd on her, though, because she took so heavily after their mum in her features. Lottie huffed as his silence and complained, “Ren!”

He shook his head. “Sorry,” he said. “Mum agreed ter give yeh the truth serum yeh were goin’ ter slip her an’ Sev’rus.”

Lottie bit her lip. “Oh, you told her about it?”

“Had to,” he mumbled, feeling slightly guilty as he did. “She wouldn’t believe me any more than she did yeh.” He looked off toward Lottie’s window and saw that the skies were gray. Whatever Quidditch team had practice today better hope it didn’t turn to rain. “Then I thought… Well, if yeh _couldn’t_ lie, then she’d have ter listen an’ we could fix this once an’ fer all.”

Slowly, his sister nodded. “You’re right,” she agreed. Ren watched Lottie warily as she came forward, but relaxed when she opened her arms. Diving into them, he buried his face in the crook between her neck and shoulders and breathed in the sweet smell of the shampoo she used on her hair. “Thank you,” she said. “You’re a really good brother.” When they pulled apart, she smiled at him. “I think I’m going to miss you the most when I go home.”

He felt tears spring to his eyes. “I’ll miss yeh lots too,” he said. “I swear I’ll never ferget yeh.”

She nodded. “I won’t forget either, okay?” she promised. “I’ll also tell our sisters all about you so they can know you too.”

Ren hesitated. But it felt right in the end and he said, “If Mum and Sev’rus marry an’ stuff an’ have babies I’ll tell ‘em about yeh too.”

She nodded. “Okay,” she said. 

Ren shifted from foot to foot. “Should we go see Mum now?”

Lottie shook her head and took his hand. “Can we just stay here a minute?”

He dipped his chin. If Lottie just wanted to stand here with him for a bit, he could do that. His writing wasn’t that bad according to Mum and Severus. Not to mention there were still years to go before it’d be important. 

He only had what amounted to days left with his sister.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It's been a minute! Finally a chapter from Ren's pov :) How did you all like it?
> 
> I am hopeful the next update will not take quite so long since I have finished writing [_To Make The Bridge ___](https://archiveofourown.org/works/26642020/chapters/64968664) _ _. Thanks for reading and please let me know your thoughts with a comment and/or kudo!__  
> 


	19. The Start of Putting Things Right

“Lottie, I have it,” called out Edie as she stepped back into Severus’s quarters. She and Ren looked up from their writing practice at the table with big eyes. Instead of shrinking back in her chair or complaining, the little girl left her work to run up to Edie.

She was bouncing on the balls of her feet as she asked Edie, “How much do I have to take?”

“Three spoonfuls,” she answered as she reached down to take Lottie’s hand and bring her back to the table. “C’mere,” She said as she helped her back into her seat. She reached for the pitcher of pumpkin juice she was keeping for the children on the baseboard against the wall. Lifting it, she brought the pitcher to the dining table and filled Lottie’s empty cup. Lottie watched with curiosity as she uncorked the potion and transfigured a quill into a standard-sized spoon. To the girl, Edie explained, “The twins said it’s bitter, but it can be mixed with pumpkin juice with no harm.”

Lottie’s face briefly flickered with disgust before she sighed. “Okay.”

“Yeh ready?” asked Edie once she’d measured and mixed the spoonfuls of potion into the drink.

The little girl’s face was hard with determination and not a speck of trepidation was anywhere to be seen. “Uh-huh.”

Edie placed the glass in the girl’s outstretched and waiting hands. “Here yeh are.”

Lottie did not hesitate to put the glass to her lips and downed the drink in a few gulps. When done, she set the cup down with a clatter and smacked her lips a couple of times. All of a sudden, her eyes dilated. She looked at her and Ren and demanded, “Ask me questions.”

Edie was going to get right to the point and find out if Lottie was lying. However, her son was quicker than her and questioned with an impish smirk, “Wha’s the naughtiest thing yeh’ve ever done?”

Lottie scowled. However, after a mulish moment grumbled, “Making Edie think Sev’rus hurt me.”

Ren sighed at her answer. “Really?” he complained. “It’s not like stealin’ yer lil’sisters sweets o’ somethin’?”

“No!” she snapped.

Edie, though, paid their bickering no mind. Her heart was hammering in her chest. Lottie had just said… She’d been telling the truth this whole time? “ _Think_?” she whispered.

“Yes,” said Lottie, turning head to look at her. 

Edie eyed the girl. “Did Sev’rus hurt yeh,” she asked, seeing if a more direct question would change Lottie’s answer.

She shook her head. “Not on purpose,” she answered after a beat. The girl began to gesture, reenacting what happened. “He let go of me an’ I wasn’t expecting it an’ I bit my lip when I didn’t catch myself in time,” Lottie finished, finger resting on her lips and muffling her words slightly.

Edie began to shake. Severus hadn’t struck Lottie? “He didn’t hit yeh?” she whispered.

“No!” decried Lottie, nostrils flaring and wearing a glower that could rival the ones Edie had seen Severus wear in the past.

It finally sunk in for her. Severus hadn’t hurt this child. At least not in a purposeful manner. Lottie and Severus had tried to tell her this and she’d refused to listen. Edie had let herself lump Severus in with all the other men she’d ever known. She covered her mouth. “He… He really didn’t hurt yeh?” she murmured through her fingers too astonished to meet the eyes of Lottie or Ren.

A little hand began to gently pat her back. She turned her head to see it was Lottie. Her eyes were far kinder than they had been in days. “Like I said from the start, it was all on accident, Edie,” she said.

She hid her face in her hands again and felt tears prick at the backs of her eyes. “Oh Merlin…” she moaned.

“It’s going to be okay,” said Lottie as another hand, Ren’s, she thought, joined Lottie’s in patting her back.

“He barely even argued,” Ren told Edie, his small hand thumping rhythmically around her shoulder. “He’s kept away from us.”

“That’s just Sev I think,” commented Lottie, her hand slowing in its ministrations. “Once you show him you really want something, he accepts it.” She sighed. “Even if it makes him unhappy.”

Edie rubbed away the tears she felt on her face. She then sat up and looked at the little girl. “How am I goin’ ter fix this?” she demanded.

Lottie stared back at her with startled eyes, mouth moving, but no words pass her lips. Edie felt fresh tears build behind her eyes. If Severus’s own daughter had no answers for her, what was she going to do?

“Say yer sorry, Mum,” Ren said, drawing her gaze to him. His expression was certain as he declared, “I think Sev’rus will listen.”

“He will!” agreed Lottie, voice raised and head bobbing.

Edie felt her lip start to shake and the tears in her eyes spilled onto her cheeks. “Oh, I love yeh both, but an apology after what I said? Did? It’s not goin’ ter be enough,” she told them. How could it be? She’d kept Severus from Lottie when their days with her were now finite. She’d disparaged his character to the Weasley twins. Edie had _hurt_ him. 

“It’s a start,” said Lottie. Her face grew determined. “You can continue to be sorry even after you say it.” She smiled. “He’ll forgive you.”

“Why?” asked Edie. She couldn’t see a reason for him to. What could Severus possibly gain from accepting her apology? Soon, she would have nothing to offer him.

“You mean it,” said Lottie. "That's important."

-o-O-o-

She checked the clock again. It was a quarter after eleven now. Had Severus been staying away so late every night since she interrupted him and Lottie almost a week ago? Edie shifted on the sofa and uncrossed her legs to return sensation to the leg that’d gone numb. As feeling returned, she wondered how much longer she would have to wait. Surely Severus should know she’d not linger in the lounge after putting the children to bed? She did have a bedroom. 

Edie bit her lip. Maybe not. Before, she _had_ spent time in the lounge with Severus as he did his grading for the day. She’d liked his company. Perhaps he hadn’t realized that was why she lingered. Her musing was interrupted by the quarter’s entrance opening. She looked one last time at the clock. It was half-past.

“Edie,” said Severus, struggling to hide his surprise. His shoulders fell and he looked in the direction of his bedroom. “Is there something you need assistance with?” he asked her.

“No,” she answered. She bit her lip anew and looked down at her hands. They were balled in her skirt. “I… I need ter apologize ter yeh,” she admitted.

“Apologize?” he echoed, voice miffed.

Edie sighed. Getting to her feet, she approached Severus slowly. He stiffened but otherwise didn’t react. Edie paused just out of his arms’ reach. “I know yeh didn’t hurt Lottie,” she said, trying to catch his gaze. “Not on purpose,” she added when she was finally staring into deep black eyes.

“Oh?” he replied, gaze widening slightly.

She nodded. Edie hoped he wouldn’t be terribly cross when she admitted to what she had done today. “The Weasley twins gave me a truth serum ter use on her,” she explained.

Severus’s shocked expression became horrified and his eyebrows took an angry slant over his eyes. “A truth serum?” he growled. “Edie! What in Merlin’s name were you thinking?” he demanded, stepping forward. 

Edie stepped back. Even if Severus had not hurt Lottie, even if he was not as dangerous as she’d thought just hours ago, he was still an angry man. Her experiences in life had taught her to always keep her distance when possible.

Severus stopped mid-stride, realizing, it seemed to Edie, that he was scaring her. Even so, he continued to glare at her as he hissed, “Did the pair of them _brew_ it? They are eleven!”

She hid her shaking hands in the pockets of the long sweater she wore. “I had my doubts initially, but if Lottie trusted ‘em ter make it—”

“This was Lottie’s idea?” Severus demanded, cutting her off. He bared his teeth and demanded, “You followed the directions of a _child_?”

“She was goin’ ter use it on us,” said Edie, meeting his scowl with a frown. “Before, I mean,” she corrected.

Severus’s nostrils flared and his head whipped in the direction of Lottie’s room. “That girl!” he snarled.

In spite of her fear, Edie pushed forward and placed a hand on Severus’s taut arm. “Sev’rus, please,” she begged.

He exhaled. Face stern, he declared, “We will finish talking, but there _will_ be consequences for Lottie!”

Edie nodded. That was fair. Lottie did deserve some kind of punishment for what she had planned to do. “I agree,” she said. Loosely, she took Severus by the sleeve and led him over to the sofa. They sat down. Edie on one end, Severus on the other. Once seated, he crossed his legs and positioned himself to face her.

“How could you give her something made by children?” he asked, frowning at her.

She ducked her head and began to fiddle with her wand, which she had taken from her pocket upon sitting down. Edie wasn’t entirely sure how to answer. Lottie, a potions professor’s daughter, had been confident in the twins. Madam Pomfrey was a firecall away. The riskiness of the plan Ren had proposed to her felt minimal.

Finally, she decided to just lay out her reasons for Severus to hear. “She’s a potions master’s daughter. I thought she had ter know more than me an’ she wouldn’t have been tryin’ this scheme if she didn’t think it was safe,” she explained.

He exhaled and pinched the bridge of his nose. “…Very well,” he grumbled.

Feeling slightly encouraged, Edie shared, “Ren came up with the idea ter use it on her.”

“Did he?” asked Severus, a fresh scowl taking over his face.

She nodded. Perhaps it was wrong, but Edie defended her son from being lumped with Lottie and her underhandedness. “He had no part in Lottie’s plottin’ as far as I can tell,” she said to Severus. “He came ter me with the idea yesterday an’ _asked_ ter do it.”

“Hm,” he replied. Thankfully, he did not seem to doubt her. She felt a small amount of relief at that.

She took a deep breath. Looking Severus in the eye, she said, “I asked her, after she took the potion, if yeh hurt her.”

Severus’s mouth twitched. Edie felt confusion unfurl inside of her. She couldn’t tell if his lips wanted to fix itself in a sneer or a smile. “And I presume she said I didn’t?” he asked.

“She did,” agreed Edie. “I believed her this time knowin’ she couldn’t lie out o’ love fer yeh anymore,” she told Severus, hoping he’d understand. She’d lied to out of love plenty of times. To Ren most recently. As a girl, she had lied to herself as well. Often, Edie convinced herself that her uncle’s confusing, sometimes painful affection was a sign that _he_ loved her even if no one else in their family did.

He stared off into the distance for a minute. Finally, still not looking at Edie, he uttered, “I did hurt her though.”

Edie’s heart skipped. “Wha’?” she whispered. No, Lottie couldn’t lie. That was what the serum was supposed to do. Maybe a grown man or woman could have fought the effects, but a little girl? It should have shown if she were lying. Had the potion been brewed wrong? Or perhaps the twins gave her bad directions…

As she frantically tried to figure out where she had gone wrong earlier and whether she ought to put more space between her and Severus, the wizard’s face turned to one of pain and regret.

“I… I was too rough,” he admitted, eyes on her once more, beseeching her to listen. “I _saw_ she’d hurt herself after I let her fall. I shouldn’t have dropped her in the first place, but to continue on with my berating of her after she bit the inside of her mouth? It is my fault.”

Edie felt her panic ebb away little by little. Severus was right. He should have been more mindful, or at least stopped when he realized he’d been too careless. 

However, as Edie knew far too well as a mother, every parent had a moment or two where they lost their mind a bit. When Ren had been about two and was resisting her attempts to make him sleep in his own little cot instead of her bed, one particularly exhausting night she’d held him down in his cot until he’d grown too tired to fight her and fell asleep under her hands. The next morning, she’d found she had left bruises on his shoulders when dressing him for the day.

Edie had felt like a monster for days after.

In spite of her lingering reservations, Edie scooted nearer to Severus and laid a feather-light hand on top of his clenched fist. He flinched at her touch before giving her a look of wonder. She ignored in favor of murmuring, “There’s a difference between being a lil’rough an’ strikin’ a child out o’ anger.”

“Is there?” asked Severus, an eyebrow jumping high on his forehead. “The results were similar enough you would not hear my explanation.”

She felt shame heat her cheeks. Quickly, she shook it off. Edie had no reason to be sorry. Lottie had been _hurt_. In her experience… In the experiences she heard from her neighbors, fellow prostitutes, and petty criminals she encountered around the alley, _men_ were quick to use their fists on anyone weaker than them. They were also quick to lie if they thought it’d save them some trouble.

“I think yeh know by now my life has been far from free o’ flyin’ hands,” she told Severus in a sharp rebuke. He looked away and she sighed. Even so, perhaps Edie should have at least offered a little leniency then. Up until that moment, Severus had seemed entirely devoted to Lottie and finding ways to make her _not_ hurt. She pressed the hand she still had resting on top of Severus’s down a moment. Out of the corners of his eyes, he looked at her. Edie covered her scar with her free hand.

“I… I panicked,” she admitted. “I’ve been lied ter in the past, seen men pretend they didn’t cause anyone ter bleed even as they’re wipin’ their knuckles off on their trousers,” she explained, frowning as memories too numerous to count flitted through her mind. “Then all I could think was I got ter protect ‘em. Keep ‘em safe, especially my boy.” Edie turned, taking Severus’s hand between her own. Severus startled but did not hide from her churning silver and gold gaze as it lit up his blacker than night gaze. “I live _fer_ Ren,” she declared, voice cracking. “If anythin’ happened ter him—”

“I understand,” broke in Severus, bringing the hand she did not hold to rest atop one of her own. “Edie, you aren’t wrong to feel the way you do.” Expression far too honest and contrite, he bit out, “I probably should be kept from them.”

Edie shook her head. That wasn’t right. Severus had made a mistake. He’d never drop Lottie (or Ren) to the ground again. Or continue a lecture if they hurt themselves. He’d proven he was capable of change with his classes when he took her advice for handling his students.

“No. Yeh learned from this,” she persisted. “Yeh’ve been regretful an’ yeh’ve been kind, stayin’ away from yer own quarters fer my comfort.” She shifted her hands so she held Severus’s in her own. They were larger than her hands and it was really only his fingers she grasped. Strong, thin fingers that were roughened from the work of a potions master. Edie pushed those thoughts away and said, “I know yeh wouldn’t ever repeat wha’ happened with any o’ the children again.”

He took his hands from her and stood up. “I _have_ hurt children,” he argued. A grave parlor came upon his face. “Killed them,” he choked.

Edie’s heart beat against her chest looking for an escape. She knew he wasn’t lying. From the moment she had met Severus, he had been so honest with her. Painfully so (why had she ever thought he was lying before?). However, he had also shown he was plenty ready to accept and take on more blame than belonged to him.

“When yeh were a Death-Eater?” she demanded, knowing that was the only time he could have done such things and, for all intents and purposes, gotten away with it.

“Yes,” he agreed in barely a whisper.

Edie pursed her lips. She knew it proved in a way he was capable of hurting the children, hurting _her_. Yet it was different, wasn’t it? While some men committed violence in every facet of their lives, she’d seen others capable of turning it on and off. 

She had seen more than one procurer who had no problem beating on his girls but was only sweetness to his wife. More than one dealer who had no problem taking out troublesome underlings who didn’t carry out their end of a deal, but couldn’t handle seeing their tot skin their knee. Something told her Severus was like them. 

Death-Eater work, it was business. It stayed out there. It didn’t bleed into the intimate confines of home.

“Yeh understand tha’ was different, don’t yeh?” she asked. “Those times, yeh had ter.” 

He gave a stiff shrug. “Once or twice, there was not much of a choice,” he admitted. Eyes glazing with memories, he explained, “Their youth wasn’t even a factor. In one case, we were killing a family and their teenage son broke free during the cull. I went after him because we were ordered to let none escape and I brought him down with a couple of spells.” He hid his eyes a moment with his hand and sighed. “I can at least say his death was quick and there was very little pain for him.”

Edie felt her stomach knot itself several times over. “This was not always the case,” she stated.

His hand fell and he nodded, face troubled. “Lottie has mentioned in the past she plays with Bones _children_.” he turned his back to her. “The Bones were a family heavily involved with the Order during the war. Their family was also thinned greatly during that time.” He lifted his head and hair cascaded over his shoulder blades as he stared up at his ceiling. “At this point, it is significantly smaller and I believe there is only one Bones child now.”

“Yeh are makin’ me think there had been more children,” mumbled Edie, hands shaking.

He looked over his shoulder at her, black eyes dead. “There were.”

“Wha’ happened?” she demanded. Had Severus done more than just murder the children?

He turned back around and stared at her. Edie could see he had lost hope. He believed there was no way to appeal to her anymore, that any chance of reconciliation and happiness was lost. “I was a part of the mission that found the children and their parents. While my comrades murdered their parents, I was tasked with finding them.” 

“Yeh did,” she breathed, staring at Severus.

He swallowed. “Yes, I did,” he croaked. “The one old enough to understand… He was terrified. I didn’t care.” Face falling, his hair came to fall around his face, hiding his features from Edie. She didn’t need to see it. The regret in his voice was plenty. Staring at his hands, Severus told her, “I could have. I could have hidden them again and pretended they were not in the home.”

He wrapped his arms around himself, fingers digging harshly into his arms as he admitted, “Instead, all I could think was I was glad to have found them so quickly. I was tired and found the screams of their parents grating. All I could think was the mission would soon be over, the Lord would be pleased with us, and I could go home to sleep.”

“Sev’rus,” she uttered, having no other words.

He continued. “I called in my comrades and I watched as they had their fun with the children, driving them mad with hexes and curses before they murdered them.” He lifted his head and through his dark strands of hair, she caught a glimpse of one of his eyes. They were rimmed red. “Until Lottie mentioned more Bones children, I had not given them a thought since their deaths.” Breath hitching, he said, “I _hurt_ them.”

Edie realized her opinion was not changed. He could be trusted with the children. Like with Lottie, he was showing remorse for what he had done. He was also taking far too much blame for what had gone on. Yes, he’d killed some children. 

However, all that had happened with the Bones siblings did not lay on his shoulders alone. He’d found them and then let them be tortured and murdered. Yet how much control did he really have at that point in time? Surely his comrades would have turned on him. Or reported him to Voldemort.

What happened then was survival and Edie understood that part all too well. She’d stood mute and looked the other way plenty of times when bad things happened because she didn’t want to die.

“If Voldemort came back, an’ he told yeh ter hurt children, would yeh?” she asked Severus.

He blinked. Then, grief-stricken anew, he admitted, “ I would do my best to avoid doing so or at least hurt them as little as possible. If he insisted on worse, such as murder, I would make their deaths quick.”

She nodded. For some, his answers would not be good enough. For her? It was exactly what she wanted to hear. Severus had every intention of _trying_ to be better. To limit the horrors he caused. Asking for any more would surely mean his own death. To expect him to play the part of repentant martyr for one felt wrong to Edie. Especially when she saw he could possibly preserve many more lives by following orders.

“I trust yeh with Ren an’ Lottie,” she assured him. “With all the children in this school.”

“How can you…?” he whispered, voice trailing off as he stared at her with uncomprehending eyes. 

“Yeh regret wha’ yeh did,” she explained. “I can see it. I can _feel_ yeh are,” she said, placing a hand over her heart. “I know yeh’ve learned from wha’s happened. Yeh are a man o’ principle. Tha’s been clear ter me a long time. Yeh won’t repeat yer mistakes,” she declared with utmost certainty. 

“Edie,” he said, stunned.

She cleared her throat and averted her eyes. Perhaps she’d been a little too honest. Not wanting to dwell on what she just said, she decided to switch topics. “We need ter look ahead,” she declared.

Severus’s shock was replaced with bafflement.

Edie flushed and explained, “Lottie’s time with us is only gettin’ shorter.” Meeting his eyes, she told Severus, “We need ter make sure she’s happy.” Rising to her feet, Edie went and took Severus’s hands. “Tergether, we can.”

“Together?” he repeated with an odd expression.

She nodded. “She sees us as family,” explained Edie. She squeezed Severus’s fingers. “An’ she wants us whole.”

Something like clarity passed over Severus’s features and replied, “Of course.”

She let go of Severus’s hands and rubbed her chin. “Even before…” she murmured. “I was wonderin’ wha’ can we do ter make sure she always has somethin’ ter remember us by?” Edie bit her lip before she said, “She’s been here so long, I know she’ll miss us.”

Severus’s mouth twitched with what might have been a smirk. “Something to remember us, hm?” he remarked. He looked off to the side and then back at Edie. “What if we gifted her a piece of jewelry?” he asked. “Something she could always keep with her?”

Edie grinned. She knew exactly what Lottie needed from them. “A locket,” she said.

“A locket?” he repeated, seemingly taken aback at her conviction. However, he soon nodded in agreement. “Of course,” he said, smirking. “You are right. That would be the best gift to give her.” He paused and stared at her with uncertainty for a moment. “Edie, how would you feel if we took a portrait of the four of us to put in the locket?” he inquired.

Her grin grew wider. “Lottie would love it,” she said.

Severus hesitated. “That is all right?” he asked. “I imagine we will be mistaken for a couple when we go to have the portrait taken.”

Edie considered this. It did not turn her off the idea in the least. She didn’t even care if the photographer asked them to pose as a couple. “I don’t mind,” she answered. “Lottie deserves ter have somethin’ ter look upon when she remembers us.” As Severus relaxed at her reply, a new thought came to Edie. She started to fiddle with a button on her sweater. “…May we make a couple o’ duplicate photos? I think Ren will want a photo o’ his sister too,” she told Severus.

His eyes sparked. “Sister?”

Edie exhaled. “She is his sister,” she said.

“You’ve been reluctant to use the term in the past,” remarked Severus.

That was true. Edie hadn’t liked the way Severus or the children called Lottie Ren’s sister from nearly the start of their acquaintance. Yet after months together, she couldn’t deny it anymore. The two were siblings. “I was tryin’ ter protect meself,” she admitted. “I didn’t want ter love her too much because I was afraid I’d break when I’d have ter send her home.”

“Do you think you won’t anymore?” asked Severus.

Edie felt the smile she was wearing started to shake. “I know I will,” she admitted. How could she not? Lottie was a better daughter than she ever dreamt of having. To think somewhere another version of her had raised such a loving and brave girl… She wasn’t sorry to give her back, but Edie was sorry she would never see her again.

“I don’t understand,” said Severus.

She stiffened her smile and explained, “Broken things can mend. Sometimes, broken things can still _work_ , if a bit differently. I just fergot tha’ all fer a bit.”

Severus appeared to consider her words. “I see.”

Edie’s eyes, meandering the room, eventually landed on the clock. “It’s late,” she remarked, seeing that it was past midnight now.

“It is indeed,” agreed Severus, turning his head to look at the clock with her.

Edie couldn’t help herself. She apologized again. “I am sorry fer how things have been.”

“You have no reason to be,” Severus insisted.

She shook her head. “I do, but I’ll let yeh come ter tha’ realization on yer own,” she said. Edie shifted toward the direction of her bedroom. “The children will be awake in a handful o’ hours.” She dipped her chin. “Goodnight.”

“Goodnight,” he echoed and Edie started to walk away. Then, he said, “Edie?”

“Hm?” she replied, pausing mid-stride.

“I’ll have the photo appointment ready by this weekend,” he told her. “After, we can start thinking about what kind of locket to give her?”

“I’d like tha’,” said Edie. “Thank yeh.”

The corners of Severus’s mouth turned with a smile to match the one on Edie’s lip. “You’re welcome,” he said.

Edie slipped into her room and as she closed her door, saw Severus walk off in the direction of his own.

-o-O-o-

As Edie ran a brush through Lottie’s wavy locks, the little girl turned her head around, interrupting her work. “Where are we going?” she asked.

Edie held back a sigh. She had already told Lottie a half a dozen times where they were going. Three times today already! It was as if the girl didn’t believe her. With more patience than she felt, she answered, “Ter have a portrait taken o’ us.”

“All of us?” questioned Lottie with narrowed eyes.

Edie did her best to keep her eye-roll internal. In spite of how everything had gone back to the way it was “before”, Lottie watched her and Severus’s every move with sharp eyes. It felt as if Lottie believed they were putting on a farce for her. “Yes,” she answered.

She stared at her with an odd expression for such a young face. There was something undeniably heartfelt about it as she whispered, “Thank you.”

“Yer welcome,” replied Edie. She gave one of the girl’s strands of hair a light tug. “Now, please turn back around. I need ter finish yer hair.”

Thankfully, Lottie listened. As Edie worked on putting the girl’s hair in a dutch plait for the photo, Lottie asked, “You’ll put yours up too, right? You always look so pretty when you pile it on top of your head.”

Edie paused for a half-beat in her work. Up? And make her scar more visible? “I prefer it down,” she answered.

Lottie made a noise of sadness. “Sev thinks you’re beautiful when you do,” she told her.

Edie’s hands stopped entirely in their work as heat rushed to her cheeks. Then, she realized. Lottie was not talking about Severus. “Yer dad yeh mean,” she said as she began again on Lottie’s plait. 

As she pulled and twisted the girl’s hair, she realized she was probably being a little rougher than necessary because the girl’s reply was more breathy than it should have been. “Well, yes,” she said. “I bet _our_ Sev thinks you're beautiful too,” she added as she finished off Lottie’s plait.

She gave the girl’s back a pat. “Hm,” she replied, feeling empty. Severus probably did not think her beautiful at all. No man did once they saw her scar. However, that was not something to put on a little girl’s shoulders. Instead, she kissed the top of Lottie’s head and told her, “I appreciate yer kind words, Lottie.”

Lottie turned around and pouted at her. “Please put it up?” she begged. “At least for a couple of pictures?”

Edie couldn’t find it in herself to deny the girl. So very soon this child would be gone from her life forever. She didn’t want one more cross moment between them. “Very well,” she agreed. 

Picking up the handheld mirror she’d brought to the bed for Lottie to use to inspect her handiwork, Edie pressed it into the girl’s palms. “Hold this fer me,” she ordered.

The girl raised it up and Edie stared into it as she carefully arranged her hair with the help of the brush she’d used on Lottie’s just a minute ago. After a bit of fussing and arranging, it was done. Staring into the mirror, she nodded and felt satisfaction when her hair did not move. “It’s done,” she told Lottie.

She beamed. “Love you!” she declared before dropping the mirror and running out of her room. She shouted to Ren and probably Severus as she did, “She’s put her hair up! I told you I could convince her!”

Edie rolled her eyes and slapped her thighs before she rose to her feet and walked out of the girl’s room at a more sedate pace. When she stepped out of it, she found Severus was standing in front of his hearth, hands behind his back. He cut a striking figure in the dark brown robe and green waistcoat he wore. She wished he’d wear colors more. They suited him better than the all-black ensembles he dressed in for his classes. 

“Ah, you’re ready,” he said, eyes drifting up and down her form. 

She felt a little self-conscious as she pulled at the sleeve of the burgundy robe Severus had bought her months ago now. It was her best robe and beneath it, she’d opted to wear a loose-fitting brown dress that ran to about mid-calf in length beneath it. She’d thought Severus might appreciate it if they were at least a little coordinated for their photo. It was also why Edie had argued Lottie into brown tights (even if she would not give up on wearing her richly colored gold robe and green and blue plaid dress) and Ren wore brown corduroy trousers with his green robe and a white shirt.

“Sorry, Lottie didn’t like the first set o’ plaits I put her hair in,” she mumbled, looking down.

Edie huffed at her. “They were uneven!” she complained.

“Hmph,” grumbled Edie, sending the girl a sharp look. She didn’t believe that was the reason at all. In the last week or so, Lottie had seemed to have gotten it in her head wearing anything more than one plait was baby-ish. She suspected Ren was at fault somehow but she’d yet to catch him teasing his sister.

“Nevermind,” broke in Severus. He patted Lottie’s head and gave her a nudge toward Ren who was playing with his soldiers at the table. “We have plenty of time before our appointment.”

Ren looked up from his game as Lottie slid into the chair beside him. “Yer so pretty Mum,” he whispered.

“An’ yer handsome,” she cooed, strolling over and pinching one of his cheeks.

“Ugh, Mum!” he whined, pulling away.

Lottie puffed out and stood on her chair. Throwing her arms out, she grinned and demanded, “Sev, am _I_ beautiful?”

He blinked. “Erh, of course,” he replied. Then, stern, ordered, “Sit down.”

Happily, the girl slid back into her chair. Smiling, she told him, unabashed, “Well you’re handsome too.”

“Thank you, Lottie,” he replied with a small, amused smirk.

Lottie’s eyes shot to her. “Right, Edie?” she demanded forcefully and glaring.

She bit her lip. Well. She really didn’t have a choice, did she? Lottie would throw a strop if her answer was not satisfactory. “…Yes,” she mumbled.

“Oh,” whispered Severus. He ducked his head and said, “You’re beautiful also, Edie.”

“Thank yeh,” she replied unable to stop the warmth that fanned through her. It was just a reciprocatory compliment, but it still felt nice to receive it from Severus all the same.

“Shall we?” he asked, gesturing to the lit hearth.

“Yes!” cried Lottie, scrambling out of her chair and running to stand next to Severus. Ren pocketed his soldiers and hurried after his sister. 

Severus began to reach for his box of floo powder, but he abruptly stopped and his eyes widened. He put a hand in the breast pocket of his waistcoat. Eyes finding hers he said, “Edie, before we go.” From his pocket, he brought out a hair comb with little gold roses decorating it.

“Wha’s this?” she asked as she came to join the rest by the hearth.

“I thought, well, Lottie wagered me you would wear your hair up,” he admitted. His voice was almost tentative as he admitted, “I felt perhaps you would appreciate this addition if she was right?”

Edie could hardly believe what she was hearing. This wonderful thing was for _her_? She held her breath as she picked it up from Severus’s palm to marvel at it more closely. “It’s pretty,” she murmured, mesmerized. 

“The gold,” Severus stumbled, “I thought it would go well with your eyes.”

Did he like the gold streaks in her eyes? Edie had to fight the blush that wanted to take her cheeks. Smiling widely, she said, “Thank yeh.” Stroking one of the delicate roses, she admitted, “I… I don’t think I’ve worn one o’ these before.”

“I can place it?” suggested Severus.

She nodded. “Please.”

He plucked it from her fingers and with delicate, careful fingers arranged the comb in her hair. “There you are,” he said when he was done, almost smiling at his work.

“How does it look,” she asked the children, lifting her chin a bit and smiling.

“Splendid,” said Lottie with Ren bobbing his head alongside her.

Edie grinned at the pair. Then, suddenly bashful, looked to her feet. She had something for Severus too, actually. She’d thought she would wait until they were at the photographers, but…

“I, er, didn’t know when I’d offer this, but,” she stammered. “Here,” she said, offering a green ribbon she’d hidden up her sleeve.

Severus took it with curiosity. “Ribbon?” he said, inspecting the smooth strip of fabric.

“Ter tie yer hair off ter the side,” she explained. Edie felt silly as he looked at her with an unreadable gaze. “Yeh don’t have ter,” she told him. “I just think yer it’d make yeh look dashin’…” 

Severus’s fingers went immediately to work and not a beat later he’d gathered his hair and tied it into a bunch with the ribbon. He turned his head side-to-side. “How is this?” he asked.

“Handsome,” she whispered with a dry mouth.

She saw a pinkish hue come to Severus’s ears and she had to hold back a giggle. It was endearing to realize he could be embarrassed by a little compliment. He offered her an arm. “Shall we?” he asked.

She nodded and linked her arm with his. “Thank yeh,” she said while taking Ren by the hand as Ren did the same with Lottie. The four of them then stepped into the fireplace and Severus threw down his fistful of floo-powder, calling out their destination.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Edie has finally been convinced of the truth and apologized to Severus! Lottie's story is drawing near to the end now with them prepping a goodbye gift to give her too. Thoughts?
> 
> Thanks for reading and please let me know how you're liking things with a comment and/or kudo!


	20. Bittersweet Farewell

When Severus stepped out of his quarter’s hearth, his pleasant mood disappeared entirely. The headmaster was sitting on his sofa. Not only was he just sitting on his sofa, he looked _comfortable_. He was at one end, elbow perched on the arm, legs crossed with a book splayed across his lap. One that Edie had been reading to the children during her lessons. Something about the history of common charms.

He smiled at them and Severus scowled as the childrens’ chatter with Edie came to an abrupt halt to his right. “Ah, Severus,” said the man as he closed the book in his lap. Putting it aside, he got up to greet them by the fireplace. “Edie, children,” he continued, acknowledging them with a dip of his chin.

A glance at Edie told Severus she was mostly shocked by the old wizard’s presence, but there was a vein of wariness too. That was good. Vindicating. He was right to find Albus _waiting_ for them in his private quarters vexing. He looked down at the children. Ren was looking between him and his mother, unsettled.

Lottie, though, however, grinned as if the headmaster’s presence was a delightful surprise. Maybe back at her Hogwarts, a drop-in visit from the headmaster wasn’t out of place. Perhaps it was a treat to have him in her home and all to her family. 

She broke off from the rest of them. “Hi, Professor!” Lottie said, staring up at him with her wide grin.

He smiled back at her and Severus stepped toward the little girl. He wrapped a hand around Lottie’s shoulder and held firm as he murmured, “Headmaster, to what do we owe your visit? It appears you’ve been _awaiting_ us.”

Albus did not miss the threatening undercurrent of his tone. He suspected Edie was also well aware. Possibly Ren too. He was younger than Lottie, but far from naive. In spite of this, The headmaster did not let his smile falter as he replied, “I have received news from the Unspeakable department at the Ministry.” 

Lottie gasped as Severus’s heart gave a single, hammering thud against his chest. He was also a man who knew how to school his features, but he had doubts he’d entirely kept hidden how little he’d expected that to be Albus’s answer. Thankfully, the headmaster did not reply to his reaction.

Instead, he continued on as if he nor Lottie had responded at all. “They have scheduled to return Lottie home on the twenty-second at precisely eleven seventeen in the morning.”

“Precisely?” said Edie as she drew nearer to Severus. He thought she might reach out for his arm, his hand. She stopped short, though. Severus was not sure how he felt about that. If she had, he may have been able to comfort her as they grappled with knowing when their world was to end.

The headmaster nodded. “Yes, from what I was able to gather, the time and, date, to a lesser extent, are key to getting her home to her exact universe.”

Edie’s voice trembled as she commented, “Tha’s not even two weeks from now.”

The old wizard stared at her a moment with something close to sympathy. Then, to Severus, said, “Severus, if you would like, I think I, or another professor, could take over your classes starting on the twentieth? To give you all a couple of days to say your goodbyes?”

He glowered. What kind of offer was that? Lottie would still be leaving whether he had more time with her or not. “I will have to de—”

“Thank yeh, sir,” cut in Edie, voice firm with not a note of its earlier shakiness.

He looked directly at her. “Edie,” he said. He had wanted to rebuke her but faltered when he saw how her eyes were more metal-gray than gold.

“Do not look a gift horse in the mouth, Sev’rus,” she scolded. “We’ll plan somethin’ extra special,” she declared then to the room at large. She turned her attention to Lottie, eyes no longer so steely. “Wha’ would yeh like ter do, swee’?”

Lottie’s eyes doubled in size. “I get to pick?”

Edie chuckled. “O’ course!”

Severus, realizing he had lost, relented. “Thank you, Headmaster, for your generosity,” he grumbled.

The old wizard’s eyes danced with amusement for a moment. “It is no trouble,” he said. “It is clear to all Lottie has come to have an important role in your life. The least we can do is make sure you have the time to give her a happy farewell.”

Lottie looked at them speculatively then. “Can I have a party?” she asked.

“A party?” he echoed. How had another him managed to raise such a social child?

She bobbed her head and expounded, “A goodbye party! I want to say goodbye to everyone.” On her fingers, she listed people. “You, the other professors, the Weasleys…”

“Yes, we can do tha’,” Edie agreed as he hesitated.

Severus, who really wasn’t excited at the idea of putting one together, said to Lottie, “Edie and you may plan it.” 

The little girl turned a determined eye onto Ren, who had been oddly quiet ever since Severus and Edie relaxed a few minutes ago. “I want Ren’s help too,” she proclaimed.

“I don’t want ter help yeh with a stupid party!” yelled the little boy, his face red. While everyone stared at him, stunned, he ran off to his room. Behind his retreating back, he slammed his door shut.

Lottie, who had been left gaping, moved to run after her brother. “Ren!” she cried.

Severus grabbed the girl as Edie sighed, tiredness taking her features. “I’ll go talk ter him.” She frowned and stroked her fingers down Lottie’s face. “It might just be hittin’ him now.”

He agreed with Edie. It did seem the most likely cause for his outburst. Especially since until this moment he’d seemed entirely unaffected by the fact soon (too soon) Lottie would be leaving them forever. “Go on,” he urged.

Lottie fought the hold he had on her shoulder. “I’ll come too!” she declared.

He held fast and scowled down at her glaring face. “No, you won’t. Let Edie speak to him first.”

She puffed out her cheeks and stamped her foot. She tried to argue, “But—”

“Listen ter Sev’rus,” broke in Edie with a warning look. “I’ll call fer yeh when he’s ready.”

Lottie relented. “Fine,” she grumbled, chin dipping low onto her chest. 

Edie turned away and went to her son’s room. She knocked softly, calling, “Ren?” He, of course, did not answer. Edie opened the door slightly and slipped in, shutting it behind her.

To his right, the headmaster cleared his throat. “I think that may be my cue to leave,” the man said.

Severus nodded. “Yes, I agree.”

Lottie, however, had other ideas. She grabbed the man’s ugly indigo robe as he passed them on his way toward the exit to Severus’s quarters. “Wait, Professor!” she whined.

Showing more patience for this little girl than he ever had Severus in his youth, the headmaster stooped slightly and smiled at the girl. “Yes, Lottie?”

The girl’s eyes snapped to him and he felt his stomach drop. “Severus, show him one of the photos we took!” she ordered. 

He closed his eyes. Severus had been hoping to keep their photos private. He should have known they wouldn’t. Lottie was not someone who hid her thoughts and feelings. 

“Photos?” repeated the headmaster, interest piqued.

He opened his eyes and exhaled noiselessly. “That’s where we were,” he explained as he reached into his pocket and pulled out the small handful of photos they had taken today. Most are of the four of them, but there are a couple of just the children together and one of Edie and Ren too. As well as Severus and Lottie, the little girl wanting things to be “fair”. “Edie thought we should take a few photos of ourselves. That way, Lottie could have a permanent memento of her time with us,” he explained as he stared down at them, not yet willing to show the actual pictures to the headmaster.

“Ah,” replied the man. “What a clever idea.”

Lottie huffed and tugged on his arm. “Severus, show him!” she demanded.

He was still reluctant. “Sir?” he said, hoping he might take pity on him and make some kind of excuse for why he could not.

Albus leaned in nearer to Severus. “Yes, I have a moment,” he said.

He relented. Carding through the pictures, he pulled from the collection the one Lottie said was her favorite. “This is Lottie’s favorite,” he said.

It was an animated photo. They had taken it outside in front of a tree with yellow-orange leaves. Severus and Edie sat side-by-side on a white cast-iron bench. The photographer had suggested they lean against each other slightly, perhaps entwine their hands. They’d been comfortable with neither suggestion, but, somehow, they still looked like proud parents as they stared into each other’s eyes. At their feet, happily seated in the grass and dead leaves were Ren and Lottie laughing. Ren’s smile peeked from behind his fingers, eyes squinting with mirth. Lottie, however, was brash with her joy. Her head was lifted and her grin wide and infectious as she giggled.

“I can see why,” remarked the headmaster. “You’re laughing quite a lot with Ren, aren’t you?”

Lottie smiled, evidently proud. “The photographer told a funny joke!”

“Did he?”

She nodded. “Yes, would you like to hear it?”

“I would, very much,” agreed Albus, turning his attention away from the photo and fully to Lottie. Severus tucked it, and the rest, away back in his pocket. He hoped Lottie loved her photo even more once he’d put in his and Edie’s parting gift.

Lottie began to giggle, already anticipating the punchline of the photographer’s terrible joke. “Why’s herbology the Slytherins’ favorite class?” she asked the old wizard.

“I don’t know. Why?”

“Because it’s the greenhouse!” she answered with a wide smile. Then, just to make sure the headmaster understood, explained, “Green’s their color, y’know?”

The headmaster chuckled. He sounded truly tickled by the tacky joke. Severs rolled his eyes. Of course he would. “Yes. That was a splendid joke. I see why you and Ren found it so funny!”

Severus, who was truly tired of the man’s presence and growing anxious as Edie and Ren continued to stay closed off in the boy’s room, broke in, inpatient, “Let’s let the headmaster go now, Lottie.”

The girl agreed with no fuss. “Okay, bye, Professor Dumbledore!”

He patted her head. “I will see you again soon.”

“You’ll come to my party, right?” Lottie demanded, staring up from under the old wizard’s hand.

“Of course, don’t you worry,” he answered with another kind smile.

Lottie called after him as he began to pass through the exit to Severus’s quarters. “Bye!”

“Goodbye,” he replied, looking over his shoulder, a hand raised in farewell.

Once he was gone from Severus’s quarters, Lottie turned back to him. “Can I go see Edie and Ren yet?”

“No,” he snapped, annoyed. As Lottie pulled back from him, Severus realized his mistake and knelt to her height. Warily, she watched him. Severus reconfigured his expression into something milder and said, “I know you want to make Ren feel better, but this is something you will have to let Edie calm him down about. Soon, you won’t be here and there’s nothing that’s going to change that.”

The wary look Lottie wore was replaced with something sulky but accepting. “Fine.”

“…You can have more than a party,” Severus decided to tell the girl. He was not worried about spoiling the girl anymore. She would be home to her own family far too soon. “Is there anything else you would like us to do before you go home?”

Lottie blinked, surprised by his offer. She then squinted her eyes and began to tug on one of her plaits. “Um. Would you take me to some famous nature museum in Muggle London?” she asked. “If it exists? Susan and her cousins went an’ saw it this summer. They said it was wicked and there were bones of all kinds of giant creatures to see.”

Severus did not know very much about museums. Especially Muggle ones. However, it wouldn’t be too difficult to get a map of the city’s Muggle half and search it for the place Lottie was describing. “I will look into it,” he promised. “A trip there should be feasible if it exists. I have no doubt Ren will enjoy it too.”

She grinned at him. “Yeah!” 

Standing back up, he put a hand on the back of Lottie’s head and gave her a light push toward her room. “Why don’t you change into something you can play in? Once Edie and Ren have finished talking I will take you two to the quidditch pitch for a ride.”

She twisted around to gape at him. “Really!” she exclaimed. “I love you!” 

Lottie then tackled him with a hug and he had to tense to hold himself in place. Severus rolled his eyes at the top of her head. It was a bit of a strong reaction to a broom ride, he thought. Especially since she had been badgering him into one at least once a week since the first ride he gave her. “Yes, yes,” he grumbled. “Go on.”

She shot him one last smile before hurrying to her room, the drape separating it from the lounge swishing as she closed it.

Severus went and sat on the sofa. He picked up the book the headmaster left abandoned, closed it, and placed it on the table to the right of the sofa. Once done, he noticed movement from the corner of his eyes. Turning around, he saw it was the door to Ren’s room opening. He filtered out, rubbing his eyes, with Edie behind him.

“Are you feeling better?” he asked the little boy.

Ren sniffled and apologized. “Sorry fer bein’ naughty.”

Really, Severus didn’t think one was necessary for this situation. However, it was good he practiced his manners and it was clear to him _Edie_ wanted her son to apologize. So he nodded and said, “I accept your apology.”

Ren looked around, expression turning anxious. “Is Lottie cross?” 

“No, she kept insisting on coming to check on you,” he answered. He gave Ren a closed-mouth smile. “She wanted to cheer you up.”

“Oh,” he replied before returning the smile.

Severus glanced at Edie who was making a big to-do about looking from him to Ren. He sighed internally before he got down on one knee in front of the boy. “Ren, I’m sure your mother has already told you it’s okay to be upset about this?” he asked, which earned him a small nod. He put a hand on Ren’s shoulder. Lightly, he squeezed it. “It’s always difficult to say goodbye.”

Ren looked to his feet, expression glum again. “Yeah, she said so too.”

Severus kept his hand on Ren as he pondered his next words to the child. “We have to remember, while it… hurts… to see the end in sight, this is what we always wanted.” He moved his hand from Ren’s shoulder to his chin. Gently, he made the boy look him in the eyes. “Lottie deserves to be with her family. Her parents, her sisters, and aunt.”

“She’ll be happier there than she is here,” said Ren.

He did not flinch. “Yes.”

“Tha’ doesn’t mean she won’t miss us too,” broke in Edie from above, expression just a touch reproving.

He agreed. “Of course.”

“Now, are yeh ready ter say yer sorry ter Lottie?” questioned Edie, looking down at her son.

Ren’s face turned determined. “Yes.”

Before he could walk off in the direction of the girl’s room, Severus put up a hand. “Ren, before you do, change into something you can ride a broom in,” he ordered. “I promised Lottie I would take you both to the quidditch pitch.”

His eyes lit up, the gold in them shining brightly like veins of gold ore in dirty quartz. “Really?”

He gave the boy a small smirk. “Yes.”

Unlike his sister, he did not try to hug him. Ren settled for a large smile that showed off all of his teeth. “Thank yeh, Sev’rus!”

“Yes, thank yeh,” agreed Edie from above as Ren darted behind her and back into his room to change.

Severus stood up and met Edie’s warm gaze with one he hoped shared a fraction of the same regard. “You’re welcome.”

-o-O-o-

Edie was suppressing laughter as she staggered into Severus’s quarters. “He hasn’t been knackered like this ever!” she whisper-exclaimed to him as she shifted her sleeping son from her back to the sofa. 

Severus, who was behind Edie, carrying Lottie in his arms, smirked. “I suspect this day will be one he remembers well into his twilight,” he said. Severus thought he himself might remember it that long. There was something almost indescribable about watching a pair of children discover a whole new facet of this world. He wished even a fraction of his students would show such eagerness for his potions lessons.

Edie, as she straightened herself back out, tipped her head at the girl in his arms. “Lottie too.”

“Yes,” he agreed, looking down on the slumbering face resting against his shoulder. Her eyes were twitching. Severus wondered if she was dreaming of the day’s events or if other imaginings were filling her head.

Edie walked over and brushed a hand through the girl’s loose tresses. Lottie had refused to let them tie it away today. All the same, they had kept cord on hand in case she had changed her mind while she and Ren explored the exhibits at the Natural History Museum. 

In typical Lottie fashion, she did not. It was something Severus had come to admire and hate in the child over his time with her. Once she had her mind made up, there was rarely any changing it without extreme effort. It was clear to Severus her mother, her Edie, had to be the source of such conviction.

“Is her present ready?” asked Edie.

He nodded. It was very ready. The little oval-shaped gold locket with Lottie’s favorite photo of them rested in a forest green satin box next to his bed. “I have it in my room,” he answered. “Would you like to see it?”

Edie looked at him, eyes shining. “Were yeh able ter find one with the flowers on it?”

Severus had been able to get flowers on the locket. Though, it had not come with them. “I had to speak with Filius. He helped me to charm an etching of forget-me-nots onto it,” he explained to Edie.

The witch put a hand to her scarred cheek, a fretful tautness coming to her brow. “I didn’t say it had ter be forget-me-nots, just tha’ it’d be fitting…”

Severus juggled Lottie around so he could brush his hand over Edie’s forearm. “He was happy to help, don’t worry,” he assured her. “Everyone likes this little troublemaker.”

Edie’s lips twitched. “I’ll thank him termorrow,” she said in the end.

He did not roll his eyes. “If you insist.”

She shifted from foot to foot, eyes going from him to Lottie, to Ren still on the sofa. “I guess this is goodnight,” she mumbled.

Severus’s heart sank out of its usual rhythm. “Put Ren to bed, I’ll put Lottie in hers,” he told her. “We can… Stay up a bit. If you like.”

Relief flooded across her face. “I would, very much.”

Severus nodded his agreement and went to put Lottie in her bed while Edie did the same. Tucking in Lottie was not a lot of work, he simply pulled her shoes off her feet and laid her beneath her covers. Once he had them pulled back over the little girl, he left her room and went to the shelf in his quarters where he kept the bottle of wine he always had on hand just in case he needed to relax his nerves or had something worth celebrating. 

He then conjured two glasses and poured the wine into them. Taking them to the sofa, Severus sat down and took a sip of his glass. 

It was as he was swallowing the dry wine Edie reappeared. She paused at the sight of him drinking. “Oh, wine,” she said as she slowly came to sit on the sofa with him. When Severus handed her the other glass, Edie took it. However, she did not drink.

“It’s weak,” he assured her. “I don’t keep anything I can easily get drunk off in my quarters.” He sighed. “I have too many vices as it is.”

Tentatively, she took a sip. Then a slightly bigger one. “I really only drink on the job,” she admitted as she lowered her glass to hover just above her lap. “It’s more palpable then.”

“I’m sure.”

Edie was quiet a moment. Then, eyeing him, she remarked, “Yeh’ve never said anythin’ about my profession.”

Severus returned her careful look. “I know you think I am a well-to-do man,” he said. These days, he really wasn’t too badly off. Being a professor of Hogwarts paid better than being a manager at one of the Mulpepper’s apothecaries, which was the direction he’d been going before he was hired by Albus. “I suppose in comparison to yourself I am,” he admitted. “However, I grew up knowing hunger and neglect.” He caught Edie’s gaze, which was wide as she listened to him. “I understand doing what must be done to survive.”

“I’m sorry,” she murmured, apparently shamed.

“Do not apologize,” he told her, Severus hesitated, but reached out and put a hand on top of her knee. “You have known more misfortune than I.”

Edie did not pull away from him and Severus took quiet pleasure in their connection as the witch’s expression grew musing. “Everyone has their own battles, I suppose.”

He nodded. “Yes.”

Edie exhaled and moved closer to him. “It’s hard ter believe she’ll be gone after termorrow,” she murmured before letting her head come to rest on the back of the sofa just centimeters away from his shoulder.

He could feel her body heat. “I don’t know how I will just let the Unspeakables take her,” he admitted, leaning nearer to the witch, catching the scent of rosemary off of Edie. Did she wash her hair with something that had the herb? Or was it perfume? Severus did not let the questions consume him as he confessed, “In spite of my efforts, I’ve grown to care about her.”

Edie tilted her head back and stared up at him with eyes that were torn between gold and gray. “Yer not alone. Ren an’ I love her too.” Edie sighed and sat up a moment to finish her glass of wine. “I think this will be one o’ the hardest things I’ve ever done, lettin’ her go.”

Severus’s voice was hoarse as he whispered, “Yes.”

Edie stared into her empty wine glass, a mournful pout on her face. “She’s goin’ ter be so happy when she’s home…”

“I suppose that is some solace,” replied Severus, hoping, perhaps, if he voiced the thought it might feel like the truth.

“Is it?” asked Edie, raising an eyebrow.

“…No,” he croaked before he drank down the rest of his wine. He then took Edie’s glass and his own and set it off to the side away from them.

Edie sighed and laid her head back down. This time, her hair fell over his shoulder. “How selfish we are.”

Severus put his hand on Edie’s knee again. She did not move and he tightened his grip. “Life is once again knuckling us down into the dirt,” he muttered darkly. “We cared for her, we bloody loved her, we are putting aside our own wants to give her what she needs.” He twisted himself in his seat to stare into Edie’s watching gaze. “If we wish to be hurt after, to be bitter, I believe it is our right.”

“Yeh sound as if yer speakin’ from experience,” she replied, still staring him in the eyes.

He settled back down, feeling tired. “Perhaps I am,” he sniffed.

“When tha’ bird yeh loved died, is tha’ wha’ yeh did?” she asked, readjusting herself so her legs were pulled up on the sofa and she had an arm propped beneath her head. “Let yerself be bitter an’ angry an’ hateful?”

Severus could not look at the witch any longer. That was a far too simplified version of the events that had happened. “I don’t know if I can begin to describe to you how her death felt like the universe’s attempt to shatter me.” He exhaled and pressed the heels of his hands to his eyes. “In fact, I thought it did in the ways that counted.” He let his hands fall to his lap and he stared at the back of his hands as he murmured, “At least until Lottie appeared.”

Severus almost leaped to his feet when Edie curled a lock of his hair behind his ear. He could feel her eyes on his face, but he did not meet her stare as she said, “Sometimes, I try ter picture wha’ life is like where she’s from.” Even as he tried to not look at Edie, he still saw her smile out of the corner of his eyes. “It sounds like a dream.”

He swallowed. “Yes,” he agreed. “I never believed before her I could ever raise a child who is happy.”

Edie put one of her hands on top of his own. “Sev’rus?” she uttered, tone abruptly anxious.

He could no longer avoid looking at the witch. “Hm?” he replied, lifting his head to stare into her tense features.

“I’ve put this off long enough,” she declared. Edie breathed in and out. “Wha’s goin’ ter happen when Lottie is gone?”

Severus stiffened. “What do you mean?”

She bit her lip. “Will yeh be expectin’ me an’ Ren ter leave immediately or…?”

He rarely was not in control of his mouth. Especially since the incident that cost him his friendship with Lily. Yet now was one of those times. From his lips slipped a single, potentially damning word:

“Stay.”

Surprise flitted across the witch’s countenance. “Stay?” she echoed, a tremor in her voice.

Had he overstepped? Severus hoped not. Fumbling, he tried to explain himself, “Yes. Lottie leaving will be quite a big change as it is. I, _we_ , shouldn’t distress Ren further by having you two move.” He tried to smile at Edie. “We can take the days as they come afterward.”

Edie wilted a little. “Okay.”

“Did you wish to leave?” Severus asked, nervous. He knew she hadn’t been the most comfortable, especially since the misunderstanding. He skirted around that and, instead, voiced one of her small complaints from early in her time at Hogwarts. “I know you find living in the dungeons unpleasant."

“No!” she replied, almost panicked in expression. Edie smiled, though it was unsteady. “No. Stayin’ is a good idea. It’ll be less stressful fer Ren,” she concurred. Edie patted his hand once. “I don’t mind the dungeons anymore,” she told Severus. The gold in her eyes churned. “They’ve grown on me.”

Severus felt relief at her answer. He returned her smile with a smirk. “It’s settled,” he declared. “You will stay.”

Edie nodded. “Yes.”

-o-O-o-

They had Lottie’s party in his potions classroom. For her party, they lined the walls with red and blue balloons, and from the ceiling hung papercraft snitches periodically. Their last touch was Severus turning his blackboard into a magical window that showed Hogwarts’s Quidditch Pitch. When Lottie walked in, she had been delighted. Her delight turned to pure bliss when she realized all of the food for the party was her most favorite treats and drinks.

For the first part of the party, Severus hung back. He let Lottie talk and play with her guests. This was her last chance to see them all while Severus would have her after, in the morning. However, after she appeared to have made her rounds and went to the food table to refill her plate, Severus approached the girl.

“How do you like your party, Lottie?” he asked her, scanning the room for Edie and Ren. Edie was speaking with Poppy and Septima off toward the right-middle of the room. As for Ren, he was in the midst of a game of Exploding Snaps with Charlie and Percy Weasley and Filius.

He looked back at the girl just in time to see her beam right at him. “It’s brill!”

Severus nodded, satisfied. Then, because he could not stop himself from further winding the girl up, he told her, “When it’s over, Edie and I will have one more gift for you.”

“Really?” she replied, eyes wide.

If he stared carefully at Lottie, he was sure he could see she was vibrating. That did not bode well for bedtime (maybe that was fine. Did she really need to sleep tonight? It would be less time she spent with him and Edie). Pushing the observation from his mind, Severus felt his own lips lift with a small smirk. “Yes. We think you’ll quite like it.”

She juggled her plate to one hand and wrapped a single arm around his waist. “Thank you!”

Severus placed a hand on top of her head. “You’re welcome.” He stepped back and out of the girl’s embrace. “I’ll let you go now,” he said. “Enjoy the rest of your party.”

Instead of leaving, Lottie’s mouth began to shake. Hurriedly, she put her plate down. “Sev!” she cried as she tackled him in a new hug with both arms.

He grew alarmed when he felt his front begin to grow wet. “Lottie?” he asked as he lowered himself to her height. It was a little difficult, as she did not want to let go of him, but Severus managed to maneuver her arms to rest on his shoulders. “Lottie? What’s brought this on?”

Her face was wet and Severus held back a wince when he felt her sticky fingers twine in his hair. “I’m never going to see any of you again!” she whimpered.

Severus sighed. “It’s rather awful, isn’t it?” he said. He should have probably tried to distract her, pushed off this conversation for later, but that felt wrong. Severus hoped if they commiserated perhaps Lottie would feel better knowing she was not alone in her pain. 

“I love you, I don’t want to say goodbye,” she sniffled, wiping her face with her hands. “I don’t think I’ll ever come back.”

No, the chances Lottie would ever be allowed to experiment with a Reality-Shifter again were next to none. Tomorrow, when the Unspeakables came for her, that was going to be it for them. It was hard to swallow, but for Lottie, he would. 

“We love you too,” he murmured to the girl. Severus hesitated but settled a hand on her cheek. “Saying goodbye will be painful and you’ll be sad for a time.” Lottie’s mouth pulled into a frown and Severus hastily corrected himself, “A _great_ time.” The girl settled and Severus went all. “All the while, life will go on, you’ll grow, meet new people, learn new things and we will become a fond memory with an edge that only rarely cuts when you hold it wrong.”

Lottie’s expression became relieved. “It’s not always gonna be like this?”

“No,” answered Severus. Lottie would grieve them, he had little doubt, but she would not become lost in it. “You’re a strong girl. I can tell you’ll overcome it.”

She stared into his eyes. “Swear?”

Severus did not look away from Lottie. “I do,” he said.

She exhaled. “Okay.”

He let his hand fall from her cheek. “Are you ready to enjoy the rest of your party?” he questioned, hopeful that, for now, Lottie could put aside her melancholy and enjoy her last moments with the people in this room.

Lottie smiled. “Yeah!” she answered and her voice did not shake.

He picked up her plate and handed it back to her. "There you are," he told her. "Go finish your party."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> We are very, very near the end now! I'm still fleshing out the last scenes, but there will be either one or two more chapters.
> 
> Also, last week, I uploaded a companion to chapter 10, [“The Meeting”](https://archiveofourown.org/works/13448964/chapters/31359177), of _Black Eyes_. It's from Minerva's pov and is about the tour she gives Darla and Edie get while Severus and the headmaster discuss the terms for Severus’s spying.
> 
> Thanks for reading and please let me know your thoughts with a comment and/or kudo :)

**Author's Note:**

> For more info on _Long Way From Home _, check out my[tumblr](https://itslucyluna.tumblr.com/).__


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